Five Women Named to Positions as Deans

Mary Simoni was appointed dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. The appointment is effective on October 1. For the past seven years, she has been serving at associate dean for research and community engagement and professor at the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Simoni holds bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees from Michigan State University.

Kimberly Kempf-Leonard was named dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, effective August 1. She is currently chair of the department of criminology and criminal justice at the university. She previously taught at Temple University, Kent State University, the London School of Economics, the University of Missouri at St. Louis, and the University of Texas at Dallas. She joined the faculty at SIU in 2007.

Dr. Kempf-Leonard is a graduate of the University of Nebraska. She holds two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

On August 15 Lynn Okagaki will become dean of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Delaware. She is currently commissioner of the National Center for Educational Research at the Institute of Education Sciences in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Okagaki is a graduate of the University of California at Davis. She earned a Ph.D. in developmental psychology at Cornell University.

Teri Britt Pipe was named interim dean of the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University. She was director of nursing research and innovation and associate professor of nursing at the College of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Pipe is a graduate of the University of Iowa. She holds a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Arizona and a doctorate in health policy administration from Pennsylvania State University.

Sonya Premeaux was appointed associate dean for graduate programs at College of Business of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She was associate dean of the College of Business at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

Dr. Premeaux holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. She earned a Ph.D. in organizational behavior and human resource management from Louisiana State University.