Three Women University Scientists Taking on New Duties for Federal Agencies

Lorrie Faith Cranor, professor of computer science/engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was named the inaugural chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission. She will take a leave from her faculty post while she works in Washington. Dr. Cranor has also served as director of the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon and as co-director of the university’s master’s degree program in privacy engineering.

Dr. Cranor has been on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon since 2003. She holds a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees, and a doctorate of science in engineering and policy, all from Washington University in St. Louis.

Kathy Partin, a professor of biomedical sciences, assistant vice president for research, and director of the Research Integrity & Compliance Review Office at Colorado State University, was named director of the Office of Research Integrity at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Partin has served on the faculty at Colorado State University since 1996. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and earned a Ph.D. at Stony Brook University of the State University of New York System.

Anne Kenworthy, professor of molecular physiology and biophysics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, was appointed to a two-year term as chair of the biochemistry and biophysics of membranes study section at the Center for Scientific Review of the National Institutes of Health. She will lead a group of 20 scientists who review applications for NIH grants for research on membrane structure and function.

Professor Kenworthy has been on the Vanderbilt faculty since 2001. Her research on membranes may help improve treatment of diseases such as pulmonary arterial hypertension and cholera.