Seven Women Scholars Announce Their Retirements

Rosemary E. Jeffries, the eighth president of Georgian Court University in Lakewood, New Jersey, announced that she will retire from her post at the end of the 2014-15 academic year. President Jeffries has led the educational institution since July 2001. During her tenure the institution transformed from a college to a university and became co-educational in its undergraduate programs.

President Jeffries is a graduate of Georgia Court University. She holds a master’s degree from the Princeton Theological Seminary and a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from Fordham University in The Bronx, New York.

Emily L. Moore, associate dean for academic and faculty affairs in the College of Health Professions of the Medical University of South Carolina, has announced her retirement. Before coming to the Medical University of South Carolina, Dr. Moore was provost and vice president at Dillard University in New Orleans.

Dr. Moore is a graduate of George Williams College in Downers Grove, Illinois. She earned a master’s degree at Washington University in St. Louis and an educational doctorate at the University of South Carolina.

Judy Rogers, the eleventh president of Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, has announced her retirement. Dr. Rogers will stay on as president until a replacement is found. She has been president of the college since July 2004. Earlier, Dr. Rogers served as vice president for leadership and ethics at Georgetown College in Kentucky and as associate vice president for academic affairs, undergraduate dean, and professor of English at Morehead State University in Kentucky.

Dr. Rogers is a graduate of Centre College of Kentucky and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D.  in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mary Evans Sias, president of Kentucky State University in Frankfort, announced that she is stepping down on June 30. She is the only woman serving as president of any state-operated university in Kentucky. Dr. Silas has been president at Kentucky State since 2004. Earlier she was senior vice president for student affairs and external relations at the University of Texas at Dallas.

A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Dr. Sias is a graduate of Tougaloo College and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin. She also earned an MBA from Abilene Christian University.

Sharon G. Hutchinson, senior instructor in the department of chemistry at the University of Idaho in Moscow has announced her retirement.

Dr. Hutchinson is a graduate of Alma College in Michigan, where she majored in chemistry and mathematics. She earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of Idaho.

Gail McMurray Gibson is retiring as a professor of English at Davidson College in North Carolina. She has received a research fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to work at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Dr. Gibson is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. Before joining the faculty at Davidson College in 1983, she taught at Princeton University.

Jorunn Buckley was named professor emerita of religious studies at Bowdoin College in Maine. She joined the faculty of the college in 1999. She is the author of The Great Stem of Souls: Reconstructing Mandaean History (Gorgias Press, 2006).

Professor Buckley holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from universities in her native Norway. She earned a Ph.D. in the history of religions at the University of Chicago.