Nine Women in New University Teaching Posts

Senay Simsek is the inaugural holder of the Bert L. D’Appolonia Endowed Associate Professorship in Cereal Science and Technology at North Dakota State University. The chair is named for a faculty member who served in the department from 1963 to 1993. Dr. Simsek joined the faculty at the university in 2007.

Dr. Simsek is a graduate of Bulent Ecevit University in Turkey. She holds a Ph.D. in food science from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Catherine R. Bazemore-Walker was appointed associate professor of chemistry and director of science initiatives at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. She was an assistant professor of chemistry at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and previously served on the faculty at the University of Virginia and Norfolk State University in Virginia.

Dr. Bazemore-Walker is a graduate of Norfolk State University and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Virginia.

Erin Iski is a new assistant professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. She was conducting postdoctoral research at the Argonne National Laboratory, operated by the University of Chicago.

Dr. Iski is a graduate of the University of Tulsa and earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

Anna-Katherine Ward was appointed assistant professor of management in the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She recently completed her Ph.D. in organizational behavior and human resources at the University of South Carolina.

Dr. Ward is a graduate of the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. She holds a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Maureen G. Phipps was named chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School. She has been serving as interim chair for the past three years. She is also the director of the Brown/Women’s and Infants Hospital National Center for Excellence in Women’s Health.

Dr. Phipps earned her medical degree at the University of Vermont College of Medicine.

Adell Amos was appointed Dean’s Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the University of Oregon School of Law. She has been serving as an associate professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the law school. She recently served in Washington for two years as deputy solicitor for land and water resources at the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Professor Amos is a 1998 graduate of the University of Oregon School of Law.

Valerie Accetta was appointed director of musical theater at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She spent 14 years as a professional actress and singer in New York City.

Accetta holds a bachelor’s degree in musical theater pedagogy from Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. She recently completed a master of fine arts degree at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Sharon Ballard was named chair of the department of child development and family relations at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. She joined the faculty at the university in 2000 and previously taught at Western Carolina University and the University of Tennessee.

Dr. Ballard is a graduate of the University of Maine. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in child and family studies from the University of Tennessee.

Yea-Fen Chen was appointed director of the Chinese Flagship Program at Indiana University in Bloomington. She was coordinator of the Chinese Language Program at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. She also serves as executive director of the U.S. Chinese Language Teachers Association.

Dr. Chen holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics and a doctorate in language education from Indiana University.