Eight Women Taking on New Teaching Roles at American Universities

Fatemeh Akhlaghi was named to the Ernest Mario Distinguished Chair in Pharmaceutics at the University of Rhode Island. Professor Akhlaghi joined the faculty at the university in 2001. Her research includes work on alcoholism, diabetes, and the measurement of drug levels in organ transplant patients.

Professor Akhlaghi holds a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Mashhad in Iran. She also earned a Ph.D. at the University of Sydney in Australia.

Sally Cornelison was named professor of art history and director of the Florence Graduate Program in Renaissance Art at Syracuse University in New York. The appointment is effective in the summer of 2015. Currently, Dr. Cornelison is a professor of art at the University of Kansas. She has taught at the University of Kansas since 2002 and previously served on the faculty at Virginia Tech and the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Professor Cornelison is a graduate of the University of Missouri. She holds a master’s degree from Syracuse University and a Ph.D. from the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London.

Paola Bianco was promoted to full professor of foreign languages at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She joined the faculty at Wilkes in 1996 and was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor in 2002.

Professor Bianco is a graduate of Wilkes University. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Italian and Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Fatemeh Keshavarz, the Roshan Institute Chair in Persian Studies at the University of Maryland, was named director of the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the university. Before joining the faculty at the University of Maryland in 2011, she taught for seven years at Washington University in St. Louis.

Professor Keshavarz is a graduate of Shiraz University in Iran. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Persian studies from the University of London.

K. Joy Buck was promoted to full professor in the School of Nursing at the Robert C. Byrd Health Science Center of West Virginia University in Martinsburg.

Dr. Buck holds a master’s degree in nursing from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and a Ph.D. in research and policy history from the University of Virginia.

Laura Fine Hawkes was named chair of the department of fine arts at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design in New Mexico. An award-winning scenic designer, Fine Hawkes has worked at Rice University, California State University, Long Beach, the University of California, Los Angeles, and California State University, Los Angeles.

Fine Hawkes is a graduate of the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. She holds a master of fine arts degree in scenic design from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Mercedes Baillargeon was appointed assistant professor of French and Italian in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Maryland. She recently completed her doctoral dissertation in French and Francophone studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Baillargeon is a native of Montreal, Canada, and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Quebec in Montreal.

Kristy A. Brumfield was promoted to associate professor of education at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. She has been on the faculty at the university for six years.

Dr. Brumfield is a graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans. She holds a master’s degree from Louisiana State University and a doctorate in counselor education from the University of New Orleans.