New Faculty Positions for Eight Women Scholars

Keisha Green has been named director of civic engaged research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. An associate professor in the college of education, she currently serves as co-founder and co-director of the UMass Center for Racial Justice and Youth-Engaged Research, as well as coordinator for the teacher education and school improvement program.

Dr. Green holds a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College, a master’s degree from New York University, and a Ph.D. from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lois Geist has been selected to serve as interim vice president for research at the University of Iowa. She has taught in the university’s division of pulmonary, critical care, and occupational medicine within the department of internal medicine since 1990. For the past five years, she has served as the associate provost for faculty.

Dr. Geist received her master’s degree in biology and a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Amy Rector has been appointed associate dean for faculty and academic affairs in sciences and mathematics at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been a member of the VCU faculty since 2011. Currently, she serves as an associate professor of anthropology and director of the university’s School of World Studies.

Dr. Rector holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. from Arizona State University.

JoAnn Sciarrino has been appointed as a professor of marketing and director of the MBA program at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio. She comes to her new role from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was the Jim and Mary Pat Nelson Chair in Business-to-Business Analytics and co-director of the Nelson Center for Brand and Demand Analytics.

Professor Sciarrino holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing and statistics from Michigan State University and an MBA from Emory University.

Sherritta Michelle Williams has been appointed director of the Center for Racial & Social Justice at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. She brings over two decades of experience in ministry and education to her new role. Her current research focuses on developing a mentorship program and curriculum for young adult Black women in the Baptist context through a womanist lens.

Reverend Williams is a graduate of Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, where she majored in political science with minors in religious studies, African American studies, and business administration. She holds a master’s degree in theological studies with a focus on social justice from Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York, and a second master’s degree in theological studies with a concentration on Christian education and Black church studies from Duke University. She is currently pursuing a doctor of ministry degree from Campbell University Divinity School in Buies Creek, North Carolina.

Linda Sobeski has been named the inaugural associate dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy’s regional pharmacy school at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She has been a faculty member with the College of Pharmacy for nearly two decades. Earlier in he career, she was an assistant clinical professor in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Drake University in Iowa.

Dr. Sobeski is a two-time graduate of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in medical technology and doctor of pharmacy degree.

Kate Brody Nooner has been named senior associate dean for faculty, policy, research, and innovation in the College of Science and Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Throughout her tenure with the university, she has held several leadership roles including chair of the department of psychology, vice president of the faculty senate, and interim associate dean of the College of Science and Engineering.

Dr. Nooner is a graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she majored in psychology. She received a doctorate in clinical psychology through a joint-degree program at the University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University.

Liz Roth has been named interim director of the Oklahoma State University Museum of Art. She currently serves as a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, where she teaches courses on drawing, painting and 2D design. She previously served as interim head of the department of art, graphic, design, and art history.

Professor Roth holds a bachelor’s degree in government and Russian from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and a master of fine arts degree in graphics from the University of Wisconsin.