Six Women in New Teaching Roles at American Universities

Jesmyn Ward will join the faculty at Tulane University in New Orleans this July. She will become the inaugural holder of the Paul and Debra Gibbons Professorship in English at the university. Currently, she is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of South Alabama in Mobile.

In 2011, Ward won the National Book Award in the nonfiction category for her novel Salvage the Bones. Her latest book is Men We Reaped: A Memoir (Bloomsbury, 2013). Ward holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in media studies and communication from Stanford University.

Jane Lubchenco was named Distinguished University Professor of Integrative Biology and adviser in marine studies at Oregon State University. Dr. Lubchenco is the former director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. Prior to heading up the NOAA, she held an endowed chair at Oregon State University.

Dr. Lubchenco is the former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Ecological Society of America, and the International Council for Science. She is a graduate of Colorado College and holds a master’s degree in zoology from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in marine ecology from Harvard University.

Mary Hale Toler was named the inaugural holder of the Mary Lynn and Warren Staley Chair for Leadership at Kansas State University. She is the director of the School of Leadership Studies at the university.

A former Truman Scholar and Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Toler holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a doctorate in educational leadership from Kansas State University. She earned a master degree in modern history from Oxford University.

Molly Brewer was appointed chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Connecticut. Since 2006, she has been director of the university’s Division of Gynecologic Oncology.

Dr. Brewer holds a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Texas A&M University. She is a graduate of the medical school of the State University of New York in Syracuse and earned a master’s degree in statistical analysis and clinical research design from the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

Cameron Myler was named a clinical assistant professor of sports management at New York University. She is a four-time Olympian and seven-time U.S. national champion in luge.

Myler is a graduate of Dartmouth College, where she majored in geography. She holds a juris doctorate from Boston College Law School.

Tsveti Markova was named interim chair of the department of family medicine and public health sciences at Wayne State University in Detroit. She is a professor in the department and associate dean of graduate medical education. She has served on the medical school’s faculty since 1997.

Dr. Markova is a graduate of the Medical University of Varna in Bulgaria. She completed her residency at North Oakland Medical Centers in Pontiac, Michigan.