Seventeen Women Faculty Members Taking on New Roles

Patricia Castro Lopes was named an assistant professor of biological sciences at Chapman University in Orange, California. She will begin teaching at the university in the fall of 2017. She is now completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies of University of Zürich in Switzerland.

Dr. Lopes holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Joan Brennecke was named a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, effective August 1, 2017. She is currently the Keating-Crawford Professor in the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Professor Brennecke is a graduate of the University of Texas, where she majored in chemical engineering. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.

Debbie Owens was appointed interim chair of the department of journalism and mass communications at Murray State University in Kentucky. She is the first African American and second woman to the lead the department in its nearly 90-year history. Owens had served as graduate program director for the department.

Dr. Owens is a graduate of Brooklyn College of the City University of New York System. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Florida.

Kalenda Eaton, an associate professor of English at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania, has been awarded a J. William Fulbright Research Chair in Society and Culture at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Dr. Eaton will research Black/African Canadian literature and identity politics and serve as a mentor to graduate students, among other activities.

Dr. Eaton is a graduate of Dillard University in New Orleans and holds a Ph.D. in English from Ohio State University. She is the author of Womanism, Literature, and the Transformation of the Black Community 1965-1980 (Routledge, 2008).

Josephine Halvorson was named a professor of art and chair of the graduate studies in painting program at Boston University. Since 2010, she has taught in the master of fine arts  program at Yale University.

Professor Halvorson is a graduate of the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City and holds a master of fine arts degree from Columbia University.

Leisa Flynn is the new chair of the department of marketing and merchandising in the College of Business at the University of Southern Mississippi. She has been a member of the faculty at the university since 2010.

Dr. Flynn is a graduate of Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. She earned a master’s degree from the University of New Orleans and a doctorate from the University of Alabama.

Nunzi Bettinsoli Giuse, a professor of biomedical informatics at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, has been given the added duties as the inaugural director of the Center for Knowledge Management at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dr. Giuse is a native of Italy. She joined the faculty at Vanderbilt in 1994. She earned her medical degree at the University of Brescia in Italy.

Rachel Shane was named the inaugural chair of the department of arts administration at the University of Kentucky. The arts administration program was founded at the university in 1988 but was recently granted departmental status.

Dr. Shane is a graduate of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. She holds a master’s degree in arts administration from Drexel University in Philadelphia and a Ph.D. in cultural policy and arts administration from Ohio State University.

Camille Day Nies was appointed chair of the department of music at Amarillo College in Texas. She performs and teaches the viola. Nies has been a member of the Amarillo Symphony since the age of 15.

Nies holds a bachelor’s degree in music business and a master’s degree in vocal performance from West Texas A&M University in Canyon.

Lori Soderlind was appointed director of the master of fine arts program in creative writing at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York. She was a professor of journalism at Norwalk Community College in Connecticut.

Professor Soderlind is the author of the memoir Chasing Montana: A Love Story (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006). She is a graduate of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where she majored in English and journalism. She holds a master of fine arts degree in creative nonfiction writing from Columbia University.

Sharon Erickson Nepstad was named a Distinguished Professor at the University of New Mexico. A sociologist, Professor of Nepstad is the author of several books including Nonviolent Revolutions: Civil Resistance in the Late Twentieth Century (Oxford University Press, 2011).

Dr. Nepstad is a summa cum laude graduate of Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Robin Lightner, a professor of psychology at the Blue Ash College of the University of Cincinnati, has been given added duties as associate dean of academic affairs. She joined the faculty at the college in 2001.

Dr. Lightner is a graduate of Northern Kentucky University and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky.

Kimberly J. Strom-Gottried, the Smith P. Theimann Jr. Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Professional Practice at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was named director of ethics education and policy management in the School of Social Work at the university.

Dr. Strom-Gottfried is a graduate of the University of Maine, where she majored in sociology. She holds a master of social work degree from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. Dr. Strom-Gottfried holds a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University.

Barbara Larson was named chaired of the department of art at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. She has been a member of the faculty of the art department at the university for the past decade.

Professor Larson is a summa cum laude graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she majored in art history and anthropology. She holds a master’s degree and a doctorate from New York University.

Heather Buchman was promoted to full professor of music at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. She is the director of the Hamilton College Orchestra.

Professor Buchman earned a bachelor’s degree in trombone performance from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. She holds a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the University of Michigan.

Tameka Winston was named interim chair of the department of communications at Tennessee State University in Nashville. She is a professor of communication and is host of a Sirius XM radio show.

Dr. Winston is a graduate of Alcorn State University. She holds a master’s degree from Austin Peay State University in Tennessee and an educational doctorate from Tennessee State University.

Colettee l. Heald was named associate chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been a member of the faculty at MIT since 2012.

Dr. Heald is a graduate of Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, where she majored in engineering physics. She holds a Ph.D. in earth and planetary science from Harvard University.