Ten Women in New Teaching Roles at U.S. Higher Education Institutions

Rasha Ahmed was promoted to associate professor of economics at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. She was also awarded tenure. Dr. Ahmed joined the faculty at Trinity College in 2008.

Dr. Ahmed is a graduate of the American University in Cairo. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Connecticut.

Paula P. Schnurr, a research professor of psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, is taking on the additional duty as executive director of the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The center is located in White River Junction, Vermont.

Dr. Schnurr is a graduate of the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York System. She holds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Dartmouth College.

Carleen Maitland, an associate professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University, is taking on the additional responsibility as co-director of the Institute for Information Policy at the university.

Dr. Maitland is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, where she majored in electrical engineering. She holds a master’s degree from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in technology from the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.

Jonda C. McNair, a professor of literacy education in the Eugene T. Moore School of Education at Clemson University in South Carolina, has been named co-editor of the journal Language Arts. The peer-reviewed journal is a publication of the elementary section of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Professor McNair holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in elementary education from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in language, literature, and culture from Ohio State University.

Beth Ann Clayton, who has been serving as visiting instructor in the certified registered nurse anesthesia program at the University of Cincinnati, was named director of the nurse anesthesia program in the university’s College of Nursing.

Clayton is a graduate of Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree in nurse anesthesia from Northeastern University in Boston.

Susan Strome was named to a Presidential Chair at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The appointment comes with an annual stipend of $70,000 to support a scholar’s research. Dr. Strome joined the faculty at the university in 2007 and is a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology.

Professor Strome is a graduate of the University of New Mexico. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Nicole Hodges Persley was promoted to associate professor in the department of theatre at the University of Kansas. She was also granted tenure. Dr. Persley is the first African American woman to be granted tenure in the department. She also was named director of the graduate studies in the department.

Dr. Persley is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta. She earned a master’s degree at the University of California, Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

Carrie Kitko was appointed an associate professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University. She will also serve as director of the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Program in the Division of Hematology/Oncology. Dr. Kitko was an assistant professor in the Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation Program at the University of Michigan School of Medicine.

Dr. Kitko is a graduate of Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and the medical school at Ohio State University.

Cerasela Zoica Dinu was named associate chair of the department of chemical engineering at West Virginia University. She is an associate professor in the department and will direct the undergraduate program in biomedical engineering.

Dr. Dinu holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Bucharest in Romania. She earned a Ph.D. in biology from the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Germany.

Shaunna Scott, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Kentucky, is taking on the additional responsibility as director of the Appalachian studies program at the university. Dr. Scott is the editor of the Journal of Appalachian Studies.

Dr. Scott is a graduate of the University of Kentucky with a double major in anthropology and political science. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.