New Positions for Four Women Faculty Members at Colleges and Universities

Megan Finno-Valasquez was appointed an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at New Mexico State University. She will serve as the director of the Center on Immigration and Child Welfare at the university. The center has moved from the University of Houston. Dr. Finno-Valasquez has been conducting postdoctoral research at the University of Southern California.

Dr. Finno-Valasquez is a graduate of Loyola University in Chicago. She holds a master of social work degree from New Mexico Highland University in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in social work from the University of Southern California.

Lisa Mohanty, chair of student orientation and social sciences at Trident University International, an online educational institution based in Cypress, California, has been given the added duties as associate vice president for institutional effectiveness and new programs. Dr. Mohanty joined the faculty at the university in 2008.

Dr. Mohanty is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Riverside.

Ruth Ozeki was appointed the Elizabeth Drew Professor of Creative Writing at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Professor Ozeki is an award-winning novelist, filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest. Her latest novel is A Tale for the Time Being (Viking Books, 2013).

Professor Ozeki is a graduate of Smith College, where she majored in English and Asian studies.

Maura Dykstra is a new professor of history at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. She is an expert in Chinese history from the seventeenth century to the early twentieth century.

Dr. Dykstra is a graduate of California State University, Sacramento. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.