Four Women Faculty Members Taking On New Roles

Debra J. Barksdale, associate professor in the School of Nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was named director of the new doctor of nursing practice degree program at the university.

Dr. Barksdale’s research focuses on stress, emotions, and cardiovascular disease in African Americans. She is the current president of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties. Professor Barksdale is a graduate of the University of Virginia and earned a master degree in nursing from Howard University and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Melissa Harshman, associate professor in the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia, was named faculty director of the First-Year Odyssey Seminar program at the university. The program offers 300 different small seminar classes to all incoming first-year students. The seminars are taught by tenured and tenure-track faculty.

Professor Harshman has been on the faculty at the University of Georgia since 1993. She is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a master of fine arts degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Meredith Lewis, associate professor at the University at Buffalo Law School, was appointed director of the university’s Canada-U.S. Legal Studies Centre.

Professor Lewis joined the faculty at the law school in 2012. She earned her law degree at the Georgetown University Law Center. She is an expert on international trade law.

Beverly Purdue, former governor of the state of North Carolina, was named a distinguished visiting fellow for the fall 2013 semester at Duke University. She will teach in the Sanford School of Public Policy and act as an adviser to the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy. This semester, Purdue is a resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University.

Dr. Purdue was the first woman to serve as lieutenant governor and governor of North Carolina. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds a master’s degree and an educational doctorate from University of Florida.