Three Women Scholars Appointed Department Chairs at Major Universities

Nita Ahuja was appointed chair of the department of surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. She will also serve as chief of surgery at Yale New Haven Hospital. She has been serving as the Jacob C. Handelsman Professor in Abdominal Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and chief of surgical oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Dr. Ahuja earned her medical degree at the Duke University School of Medicine and completed her surgical training at Johns Hopkins University.

Carolina Cruz-Neira was named interim chair of the department of the computer science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Dr. Cruz-Neira, an expert in virtual reality technology, is the director of the Emerging Analytical Center at the university.

Dr. Cruz-Neira is a graduate of the Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela, where she majored in systems engineering. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Laurin R. Severin was appointed chair of the department of English at North Carolina State University. Professor Severin has been a member of the faculty at the university for 33 years and was promoted to full professor in 2004. She has served as associate chair of the English department and associate dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Professor Severin is a graduate of the University of Illinois. She holds a master’s degree in creative writing and a Ph.D. in English from Indiana University.