New Assignments for Eight Women Faculty Members

Xinning Zhange is a new assistant professor of environmental microbiology in the department of geosciences at Princeton University in New Jersey. Since 2011, she has been a postdoctoral fellow and then an associate research scholar at Princeton.

Dr. Zhange is a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she majored in biological and environmental engineering. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in environmental science and engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Karen Miller Russell, an associate professor of public relations in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, was named to a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professorship at the university. Dr. Russell is the author of The Voice of Business: Hill & Knowlton and Postwar Public Relations (University of North Carolina Press, 1999).

Professor Russell is a graduate of the University of West Georgia. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in journalism and mass communication from the University of Wisconsin.

Margaret Ferguson, a professor of political science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, was promoted to senior associate vice chancellor for academic affairs. She was assistant vice president for statewide academic relations at the university.

Ferguson is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ruth Murray-Clay is the inaugural holder of the E.K. Gunderson Family Chair in Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Professor Murray-Clay joined the faculty at the university in 2016.

Dr. Murray-Clay is a graduate of Harvard University, where she majored in physics and astronomy. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Renee A. Middleton, dean of the Gladys W. and David H. Patton College of Education at Ohio University, is the new chair of the board of directors of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

Dr. Middleton is a graduate of Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. She holds a master’s degree in clinical audiology from the University of Tennessee and a doctorate in rehabilitation administration from the College of Education at Auburn University in Alabama.

Carolyn Wolfenzon was promoted to associate professor of Romance languages and literatures at Bowdoin College in Maine. She was also granted tenure.

Dr. Wolfenzon is a graduate of University of Lima in Peru. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Colorado and a Ph.D. from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Ellen Kittell was named interim chair of the department of history at the University of Idaho. She joined the faculty at the University of Idaho in 1993 and was promoted to full professor in 2015.

Professor Kittell is a graduate of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Illinois.

Courtney Fullilove, an associate professor of history at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, was granted tenure. Dr. Fullilove is the author of The Profit of the Earth: The Global Seeds of American Agriculture (University of Chicago Press, 2017).

Dr. Fullilove holds a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees, and a Ph.D. in history, all from Columbia University.