New Faculty Assignments for Eight Women at Major Universities

Simin Nikbin Meydani, a professor in the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and a professor of immunology at the university’s School of Medicine, has been given the added duties of vice provost for research. Dr. Meydani is also the director of the Human Nutrition Research Center on campus.

A native of Iran, Professor Meydani holds a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from the University of Tehran. She also holds a Ph.D. in nutrition from Iowa State University.

Amanda B. Mbuvi was appointed an assistant professor of religion at High Point University in High Point, North Carolina. She is the author of Belonging in Genesis: Biblical Israel and the Politics of Identity Formation (Baylor University Press, 2016).

Dr. Mbuvi is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree in Biblical studies from the Palmer Theological Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Dr. Mbuvi earned a Ph.D. in religion at Duke University.

Rebekah Kowal is the new chair of the department of dance at the University of Iowa. Professor Kowal has taught dance at the University of Iowa for the past 16 years.

A native of Colorado, Dr. Kowal began college at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut, where she was a two-sport athlete in tennis and swimming. But she transferred to Barnard College in New York City to study dance. She later earned a Ph.D. in American studies from New York University.

Sarah Lewis is a new assistant professor of the history of art and architecture at Harvard University. She had been teaching at the Yale School of Art and previously held a curatorial post at the Museum of Modern Art in New York . She is the author of The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery (Simon & Schuster, 2014).

Dr. Lewis is a graduate of Harvard University. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Oxford in England and a Ph.D. in the history of art from Yale University.

Erin Comartin was appointed an assistant professor of social work at Wayne State University in Detroit. She had been teaching at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Her research focuses on the criminal justice system.

Dr. Comartin holds a master of social work degree and a Ph.D. in social work from Wayne State University.

Jody Greene, a professor of literature, feminist studies, and history of consciousness at the University of California Santa Cruz, was named the founding director of the university’s Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning. Professor Greene has taught at the university for the past 18 years.

Professor Greene is the author of The Trouble with Ownership: Literary Property and Authorial Liability in England, 1660-1730 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005).

Lauren Sudeall Lucas, an assistant professor in the College of Law at Georgia State University in Atlanta, was named the inaugural director of the Center for Access to Justice at the university. The center studies issues relating to access to legal services for individuals with low incomes.

Professor Lucas is a graduate of Yale University, where she majored in political science. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School.

Jo L. Freudenheim was appointed chair of the department of epidemiology and environmental health in the School of Public Health and Health Professions at the University at Buffalo. She is a University at Buffalo Distinguished Professor and previously chaired the department from 2006 to 2013. She joined the faculty in the department in 1987.

Dr. Freudenheim is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan, where she majored in human nutrition. She holds two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in nutritional sciences from the University of Wisconsin.