Four Women Named Chairs of Academic Departments at Major Universities

Teresa Waters is the new chair of the department of preventive medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. She has served on the faculty at the UTHSC’s College of Medicine for the past 14 years.

Dr. Waters previously served on the faculty at Northwestern University in Illinois. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Lisa Marie Assante is the inaugural chair of the department of hospitality, recreation, and resort management at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. She was an associate professor of management, marketing, and hospitality at Southern Utah University in Cedar City. She previously served on the faculty at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.

Dr. Assante is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree in hotel administration from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and a Ph.D. in hospitality administration from Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

J. Catherine Scott-Moncrief was named chair of the department of veterinary clinical sciences at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She is a professor of small animal internal medicine at the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

Professor Scott-Moncrief earned her veterinary degrees at the University of Cambridge in England. She also earned a master’s degree at Purdue University.

Jacqueline Goldsby, professor of English and professor of African American studies at Yale University, was named acting chair of the department of African American studies. Professor Goldsby is the author of A Spectacular Secret: Lynching in American Life and Literature (University of Chicago Press, 2006).

Dr. Goldsby hold a Ph.D. in American studies from Yale University.