Eleven Women Faculty Members Who Are Taking on New Duties

Talitha Washington, an associate professor of mathematics at Howard University in Washington, D.C., was named program director for the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program at the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Washington is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Connecticut.

Sara Ortega-Higgs was promoted to full professor of Spanish and French at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. She first joined the faculty at the university in 2005.

Dr. Ortega-Higgs holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree in Spanish literature, and a Ph.D. in romance language studies from the Universite Stendha in France, which later merged with two other educational institutions to form Grenoble Alps University. She holds a second Ph.D. in Hispanic studies from the University of Puerto Rico.

Charmaine Royal, associate professor of African and African American studies at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, was appointed director of the Truth, Racial, Healing, & Transformation Center on campus. She is also the director of the Duke Center on Genomics, Race, Identity Difference.

Dr. Royal received a master’s degree in genetic counseling and a doctorate in human genetics from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Rayne Sperling, an associate professor of educational psychology at Pennsylvania State University, has been given the added duties of associate dean for undergraduate and graduate studies in the university’s College of Education. She joined the faculty at Penn State in 1998.

Dr. Sperling is a graduate of the State University of New York at Oneonta. She holds a master’s degree and doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Enobong Branch, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has been given the added duties of associate chancellor for equity and inclusion. She will also hold the title of chief diversity officer. Dr. Branch was named to the faculty at the university in 2008 and was promoted to associate professor in 2013.

Dr. Branch is the author of Opportunity Denied: Limiting Black Women to Devalued Work (Rutgers University Press, 2011). She is a graduate of Howard University and earned a Ph.D. in sociology at the University at Albany of the State University of New York System.

Kathleen A. Doty was named director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia School of Law. She has been serving as interim director. Doty joined the law school in 2015 as associate director of global practice preparation. She will serve on the law school faculty and teach master of law candidates.

Doty is a graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she majored in Latin American studies. She earned her law degree at the University of California, Davis.

Kathleen Evans was named director of the Summer Language Workshop program in the School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University. She was the director of the Critical Language Institute at Arizona State University.

Dr. Evans is a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio. She holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Michigan.

Krystan Van Vliet, a professor of material science and engineering and biological engineering, was named associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She joined the faculty at MIT in 2004.

Professor Van Vliet is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she majored in materials science and engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from MIT.

Susan Cancelosi, a professor at the Wayne State University Law School since 2006, was appointed associate dean of the law school. Before coming to Wayne State, she was a research professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

Professor Cancelosi is a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she majored in history and business administration/marketing. She earned a juris doctorate at Cornell Law School and holds a master’s degree in health law from the University of Houston.

Susan Patton, a professor in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at the University of Arkansas, was named interim director of the school. She has taught at the nursing school since 2010.

Dr. Patton is a graduate of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She earned a master’s degree in health services administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a second master’s degree and a doctorate in community health promotion from the University of Arkansas.

Patricia Sollors, an associate professor of neuroscience at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was given the added duties of director of undergraduate education programs.

Dr. Solllors is a graduate of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland and holds a Ph.D. in neurobiology from the University of Oregon.