Two Women Promoted to Distinguished Professorships

Cynthia Nance was named the inaugural Nathan G. Gordon Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas. Gordon, a 1939 graduate of the law school, won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his 1944 rescue of 15 Army Air Force soldiers in the Bismark Sea. He returned to Arkansas and served for 20 years as lieutenant governor.

Professor Nance recently returned to teaching after serving five years as dean of the law school. She was the first woman and the first African American to serve as dean. A graduate of Chicago State University, she holds a master’s degree and a law degree from the University of Iowa.

Karen L. Wooley was named University Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University in College Station. Dr. Wooley, a professor of chemistry, is one of 64 scholars who have been named to the highest faculty rank at the university. She joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2009 after serving on the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dr. Wooley earned a Ph.D. in polymer/organic chemistry at Cornell University.