New Women Deans at Six Universities

Lisa Bond-Maupin was selected as the founding dean of the College of Social Sciences and Communication at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She has been serving as associate dean for planning and development affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences at New Mexico State University. She joined the faculty at New Mexico State in 1995.

Dr. Bond-Maupin is a graduate of the University of Missouri. She holds a master of social work degree and a Ph.D. in justice studies from Arizona State University.

Elizabeth K. Meyer was appointed dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. She is the Merrill D. Peterson Professor of Landscape Architecture at the university. She will begin her term as dean on July 15.

Professor Meyer joined the faculty at the university in 1993. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in landscape architecture from the University of Virginia and a master’s degree in historic preservation from Cornell University.

Sharon L. Wood was named the ninth dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She has served as interim dean since October 2013. Dr. Wood is a professor of structural engineering at the school and is an expert on building concrete structures to withstand earthquakes. She has been on the faculty at the University of Texas since 1996.

Professor Wood is a graduate of the University of Virginia. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois.

Lisa Plowfield was appointed dean of the College of Health Professions at Towson University in Maryland. She has been serving as professor of nursing and chancellor of the York campus of Pennsylvania State University. She is the former dean of the College of Nursing at Florida State University.

Dr. Plowfield is a graduate of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and holds a master’s degree in trauma and critical care nursing from the University of Maryland-Baltimore. She earned a Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Virginia.

Shannon Blanton was named the inaugural dean of the Honors College at the University of Alabama Birmingham. She was a professor of political science and vice provost for undergraduate programs at the University of Memphis in Tennessee.

Dr. Blanton holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in international studies from the University of South Carolina.

Peris Drell will be the next dean of the School of Engineering at Stanford University. Dr. Drell is a professor of physics at the university and is the former director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.

Professor Drell is a graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She holds a Ph.D. in atomic physics from the University of California, Berkeley. She taught at Cornell University from 1988 to 2002.