Dr. Blake is Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Miami.  In this role, he provides strategic planning and administrative oversight for university-wide academic initiatives spanning faculty affairs and research.    Responsibilities include focused leadership in initiatives toward the advocacy, enhancement, and policy development of research for disciplines on the Coral Gables campus (i.e. Arts and Sciences, Business, Engineering, and Law) and university-wide faculty advancement with respect to faculty awards and recognition, strategic initiatives for faculty recruitment, hiring, retention & promotion, equity & diversity, and policies for spousal hires.

As a tenured Professor, Dr. Blake has dual appointments in the Department of Computer Science and in the Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering. Dr. Blake’s research investigates software engineering approaches for the integration of web-based systems.   He has authored or co-authored over 135 journal articles, books/book chapters, and refereed conference/workshop papers in the domains of internet computing, adaptive workflow systems, web-based software engineering & education, and innovative applications of software-as-a-service.  Prior to joining the University of Miami, Dr. Blake was the Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame..  He provided oversight for research programs and graduate studies in the College of Engineering.  During his term, the College of Engineering had record increases (~100%) in research awards and expenditures and the graduate program grew by over 30%.  Prior to Notre Dame, he was on the faculty of Georgetown University where he served as Chair of the Department of Computer Science.  He was chair and director of graduate studies during the inaugural years of university’s first graduate program in computer science.