New Assignments for Five Women Faculty Members at State Universities

Kim Needy, the 21st Century Professor of Industrial Engineering and dean of the Graduate School and International Education at the University of Arkansas, was given the added duties of interim vice provost for research and innovation at the university. Dr. Needy joined the faculty at the university in 2008.

Professor Needy received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. She holds a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Wichita State University.

Juliane Wallace, associate professor and chair of the department of kinesiology at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, was named interim associate dean and director of the Graduate School at the university. Dr. Wallace joined the faculty at the university in 2004 and was promoted to associate professor in 2010.

Dr. Wallace is a graduate of Concordia University. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in exercise science from Iowa State University.

Katie Kahl was appointed extension assistant professor in sustainable fisheries and coastal resilience at the Gloucester Marine Station of the School of Earth and Sustainability of the University of Massachusetts. She has spent the last six years working for the Nature Conservatory in Michigan.

Dr. Kahl is a graduate of Truman State University in Missouri, where she majored in biology. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in fisheries and wildlife from Michigan State University.

Mi-Ai Parrish was named the inaugural holder of the Sue Clark-Johnson Professor in Media Innovation and Leadership at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. She has been serving as the president and publisher of Republic Media, which publishes the newspaper the Arizona Republic. Earlier, she was the publisher of the Kansas City Star and the Idaho Statesman.

Parrish is a graduate of the University of Maryland. She has won two Pulitzer Prizes.

Amy P. Murtha was appointed chair of the department of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, effective May 1. Currently, she is a professor and vice chair for research in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina. She first joined the faculty at Duke in 1998.

Dr. Murtha is a graduate of Kings College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She earned her medical degree at the Medical College of Pennsylvania.