New Assignments in Higher Education for 10 Women Faculty Members

Jing Xiao was named director of the Robotics Engineering Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. She will begin her new job on January 1. Dr. Xiao is a professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Professor Xiao is the former director of the Robotics and Human Augmentation Program of the National Science Foundation. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Tara Hulsey, dean of the School of Nursing and the E. Jane Martin Endowed Professor at West Virginia University, has been given the added duties as vice president for health promotion and wellness at the university. Before joining the faculty at West Virginia University in 2014, she was dean and professor at the Charleston Southern University College of Nursing and Allied Health in Charleston, South Carolina.

Dr. Hulsey is a graduate of Clemson University in South Carolina. She holds a master’s degree in maternal/child nursing from the Medical University of South Carolina and a Ph.D. in nursing science from the University of South Carolina.

Gail F. Williamson, a professor in the Indiana University School of Dentistry, was named acting vice chancellor for faculty affairs for the current academic year at Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis.

Professor Williamson earned a bachelor’s degree in allied health and a master’s degree in education from Indiana University. She completed the registered dental hygiene program at the Indiana University School of Dentistry.

Rebecca A. Neal was named to the Gordon B. Sanders Endowed Chair in Teacher Education at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She will also serve as the director of the Center for Excellence in Urban Teaching at the university.

Dr. Neal earned her bachelor’s degree in special education from Hampton University in Virginia. She holds master’s degrees in special education from the College of William and Mary and the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction with a special education and culturally responsiveness concentration from Arizona State University.

Jill Kilkelly, an associate professor of clinical anesthesiology, was named chief of the division of pediatric anesthesiology at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She has served in this role on an interim basis since November 2016.

Dr. Kilkelly holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and English and a medical doctorate from Cornell University.

Sheila Melander was promoted to associate dean for graduate faculty affairs in the College of Nursing at the University of Kentucky. She was an assistant dean. Dr. Melander was appointed professor of nursing at the university in 2014 after teaching at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis.

Dr. Melander earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from the University of Evansville in Indiana. She holds a Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

April Wimmer is a new professor of aerospace studies in the Air Force ROTC program at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. Professor Wimmer has had a long career as a U.S. Air Force officer.

Professor Wimmer is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. She earned a master’s degree at the University of North Dakota.

Leslie S. Jones was appointed chair of the department of ophthalmology at the Howard University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. She is an associate professor and director of glaucoma services at Howard University Hospital.

Dr. Jones earned her medical degree and ophthalmology residency at Howard University.

Hilary Dugan was named an assistant professor in integrative biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the university’s Center for Limnology.

Dr. Dugan holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She earned a Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Sandra L. Petersen, a professor of veterinary and animal sciences at the University of Massachusetts, has been given the added duties of senior graduate diversity advisor. She will take on this role next June when her term as director of the university’s STEM Diversity institute expires.

Professor Petersen joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts in 1994. In 2015, she was honored by President Obama with the Presidential Award for Excellence in STEM Mentoring.