Six Women Scholars Named to Dean Positions at Major Universities

Katharyne Mitchell was appointed dean of the Division of Social Sciences and professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has been serving as a professor of geography at the University of Washington. She joined the faculty there in 1993. She is the author or editor of several books including Crossing the NeoLiberal Line: Pacific Rim Migration and Metropolis (Temple University Press, 2004).

Dr. Mitchell is a graduate of Princeton University in New Jersey, where she majored in art and archaeology. She holds a Ph.D. in geography from the University of California, Berkeley.

Germaine M. Louis was named dean of the School of Health and Human Services at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She has been serving as director of the Division of Intramural Population Health Research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Earlier, she was a professor in the School of Medicine at the University at Buffalo in New York.

Dr. Louis holds a bachelor’s degree in medical sociology and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University at Buffalo.

Cindy Munro is the new dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Miami in Florida. Since 2011, she has been associate dean of research and innovation in the College of Nursing at the University of South Florida. Earlier, Dr. Munro held an endowed chair in the School of Nursing at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Dr. Munro is a graduate of Millersville University in Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree in medical surgical nursing from the University of Delaware and a Ph.D. in nursing from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Rebecca Chaisson was named dean of the School of Social Work at Southern University at New Orleans. Dr. Chaisson taught at Southern University at New Orleans from 1992 to 1999. After teaching stints at Louisiana State University and Tulane University, she returned to Southern University at New Orleans and was promoted to associate professor in 2015.

Dr. Chaisson is a graduate of Xavier University in New Orleans, where she majored in biology. She holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in social work from Tulane University.

Jean King will be the next Peterson Family Dean of Arts and Sciences at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. She has been serving as vice provost for biomedical research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Dr. King is also a professor of psychiatry, radiology, and neurology and director of the Center for Comparative Neuroimaging.  Dr. King has served on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School since 1994. She is the co-editor of Roots of Mental Illness in Children (New York Academy of Sciences, 2004).

Dr. King is a magna cum laude graduate of Saint Francis College in New York. She holds a master’s degree in cell biology from the City University of New York, and a Ph.D. in neurophysiology from New York University.

Sarah Cole was appointed dean of humanities in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University in New York City. She will assume this new role on January 1. Dr. Cole is a professor and chair of the department of English and comparative literature at the university.

Dr. Cole joined the faculty at Columbia University in 1999. She is the author of At the Violet Hour: Modernism and Violence in England and Ireland (Oxford University Press, 2012) and Modernism, Male Friendship, and the First World War (Cambridge University Press, 2003).