A Dozen Women With New Faculty Assignments at Major Universities

Jelena Kovacevic was appointed University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. She is the David Edward Schramm Professor and chair of the department of electrical and computer engineering at the university. Professor Kovacvic joined the faculty at the university in 2003. She is the co-author of Foundations of Signal Processing (Cambridge University Press, 2014).

Professor Kovacevic is a graduate of the University of Belgrade in Serbia. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York City.

Millicent Marcus was appointed chair of the department of Italian language and literature at Yale University. She has been a professor at Yale since 2005. Dr. Marcus is the author of several books including Italian Film in the Shadow of Auschwitz (University of Toronto Press, 2007).

Professor Marcus is a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she majored in English. She holds a Ph.D. in Italian from Yale University.

Gabrielle Ponce will be a new assistant professor of letters at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, this fall. She recently completed work on her Ph.D. in comparative literature at Johns Hopkins University, where she conducted research on Miguel de Cervantes.

Dr. Ponce holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and a master of fine arts degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Cynthia A. Nance, the Nathan G. Gordon Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas, has been given the added duties as the inaugural director of pro bono and community engagement initiatives at the law school. Professor Nance has taught at the law school since 1994 and served as dean from 2006 to 2011.

Professor Nance is a graduate of Chicago State University. She holds a master’s degree in business and a juris doctorate from the University of Iowa.

Meg Thompson, an associate clinical professor of imaging in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, has been assigned the additional duties of director of the Cornell University Hospital for Animals. She has been serving as interim director since August 2015. Dr. Thompson joined the faculty at Cornell in 2006.

Dr. Thompson is a graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she majored in architecture. She holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Boston University and a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Tufts University.

Melissa Gilliam, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medical School, has been given the added duties of vice provost for academic leadership, advancement, and diversity at the university. Previously, she served as dean for diversity and inclusion in the Biological Sciences Division and as director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Innovation in Sexual and Reproductive Health at the university,

Dr. Gilliam is a graduate of Yale University. She holds a master’s degree in philosophy and politics from the University of Oxford in England, a master of public health degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a medical doctorate from Harvard University.

Yolanda Banks Anderson, professor of environmental science at North Carolina Central University in Durham has been given the additional role as the associate vice chancellor for faculty development/resources. Dr. Anderson joined the faculty at the university in 1996 and was promoted to full professor in 2010.

Professor Anderson is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She earned a master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Haiyan Gong was promoted to full professor of ophthalmology and full professor of anatomy and neurobiology at Boston University. She first came to Boston University in 1986 as a student.

Dr. Gong holds a master’s degree from Peking Union Medical College in China. She earned a medical doctorate at Jiangxi Medical College and a Ph.D. at Boston University.

Stefanie Lindquist was named Foundation Professor of law and political science at Arizona State University. She will also serve as deputy provost and vice president for academic affairs.  Professor Lindquist has been serving as dean of the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia.

Dr. Lindquist is a graduate of Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the Temple University School of Law in Philadelphia and earned a Ph.D. in American politics from the University of South Carolina.

Judith Yaross Lee was named a Distinguished Professor at Ohio University in Athens. She is a professor of communication studies at the university and serves as the director of honors tutorial studies in the Scripps College of Communication at the university. She has been on the faculty at Ohio University since 1990.

Professor Lee is a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Tomisha Brock was named an assistant professor of music and associate director of bands at Mississippi Valley State University. She has been serving as director of university bands at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina.

Brock is a graduate of Virginia State University, where she majored in music education. She holds a master’s degree in music education from Norfolk State University in Virginia and currently is pursuing a doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Donna Sessions, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has been given the added duties of medical director of the Tennessee Fertility Institute.

Dr. Sessions is a graduate of Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, and the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk.