Eleven Women Faculty Members Taking on New Roles in the Academic World

Tresa M. Pollock, the Alcoa Professor of Materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was named the principal editor of the Metallurgical and Materials Transactions family of academic journals. She is the former president of The Minerals, Metals, & Materials Society. Professor Pollack has been on the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 2010. She previously taught at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan,

Dr. Pollock is a graduate of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Navine Murshid was promoted to associate professor of political science and granted tenure at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. She joined the faculty in 2009 as an instructor of political science.

Dr. Murshid is a graduate of Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester in New York.

Katy Borner was named a Distinguish Professor at Indiana University in Bloomington. This is the highest academic rank at the university. Dr. Borner is a professor of information science in the School of Informatics and Computing. She also serves as the director of the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center. Professor Borner is the author of Atlas of Science: Visualizing What We Know (MIT Press, 2010).

Professor Borner holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Technology in Leipzig and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany.

Barbara Kitko is a new assistant professor of social work at the University of North Dakota. She has been serving as an adjunct professor in the department of social work at the university. Earlier, she served as a school social worker for the Grand Forks Public School System.

Kitko holds a bachelor’s degree and a master of social work degree from the University of North Dakota.

Mary Mahoney is the new chair of the department of radiology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. Mahoney joined the faculty at the medical school in 1989 and holds the Eugene L. and Sue R. Saenger Chair of Radiological Services.

Dr. Mahoney is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Anne Hoag, an associate professor of communication at Pennsylvania State University, has been given the additional duty as director of the intercollege minor degree program in entrepreneurship and innovation. Dr. Hoag joined the faculty at Penn State in 1997 after serving as an executive in the cable television industry.

Dr. Hoag is a graduate of University of Michigan, where she majored in film and video studies. She holds a Ph.D. in mass communication from Michigan State University.

Lynnette Overby, a professor of theatre at the University of Delaware, will now have added responsibilities as deputy director of community engagement. Before joining the faculty at the University of Delaware in 2008, she served as a professor and associate dean for outreach and engagement at Michigan State University.

Dr. Overby is a graduate of Hampton University in Virginia. She holds a master’s degree in dance education from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and a Ph.D. in kinesiology from the University of Maryland.

Susan J. Dwyer, an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland at College Park, was named executive director of the Honors College at the university. Dr. Dwyer is also an affiliate of the women’s studies department at the university.

Dr. Dwyer is a graduate of the University of Adelaide in South Australia. She earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Valerie Paton, a professor of educational psychology at Texas Tech University in Lubbock was named chair of the Council on Engagement and Outreach of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.

Professor Paton is a graduate of San Jose State University in California, where she majored in American studies. She holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Santa Clara University and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Michele Cyr, a professor of medicine and medical science at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, was elected chair of the board of trustees of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. She will serve a three-year term as chair.

Dr. Cyr is a magna cum laude graduate of Bowdoin College and received her medical training at Dartmouth Medical School,

Elissa Armstrong, an assistant professor in the School of the Arts and the associate director of the Art Foundation Program at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, was named president-elect of the National Council of Arts Administrators. She will serve a two-year term as president.

Armstrong holds bachelor’s degrees from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, the University of Western Ontario in London, and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. She earned a master of fine arts degree in ceramics from Alfred University in New York.