Ten Women Scholars Taking on New Assignments at Colleges and Universities

Ilana Witten was promoted to associate professor of psychology at Princeton University, where she is affiliated with the Princeton Neuroscience Institute. Dr. Witten joined the Princeton faculty in 2012.

Dr. Witten is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, where she majored in physics. She holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stanford University.

Nyla Branscombe was named a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Kansas. She has been on the faculty since 1987 and was promoted to full professor of psychology in 2000.

Professor Branscombe has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from York University in Toronto. She holds a master’s degree in social psychology from the University of Western Ontario in London and a doctorate in social psychology from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Kelley Meade, a clinical assistant professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, was given the added duties as interim associate dean of clinical and academic affairs at the university’s Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland.

Dr. Meade earned her medical degree at the Chicago Medical School and completed her residency in pediatrics at Boston City Hospital.

Jessi L. Smith, professor of psychology at Montana State University, was named the inaugural associate vice chancellor of research at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs.

Dr. Smith is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Utah.

Lydia Thompson was appointed professor and chair of the department of art and art history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She was a professor and director of the School of Art at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

Professor Thompson holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from Ohio State University and a master of fine arts degree from the New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University in New York.

Anna Marie Pyle was named the Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale University. Her research is concentrated on the structure of RNA. Professor Pyle joined the Yale faculty in 2002.

Dr. Pyle is a graduate of Princeton University, where she majored in chemistry. She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University.

Nicola Foote was appointed dean of the Honors College at Arizona State University. She has been serving as a professor of Latin American and Caribbean history and associate dean for university-wide programs and faculty engagement at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Meyers.

Dr. Foote holds a bachelor’s degree in the history of the Americas and a Ph.D. in history from University College London. She also earned a master’s degree at the University of London.

Janet Losser was named director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. She has been a member of the faculty in the university’s School of Education for nearly 15 years.

Dr. Losser is a graduate of Utah State University, where she majored in elementary education. She earned a master’s degree in teaching and learning from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Georgia.

Ann Pancake was named writer-in-residence at West Virginia University for the fall 2018 semester. She will teach courses in Appalachian literature and environmental criticism.

Dr. Pancake is the author of the award-winning novel Strange as This Weather Has Been (Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007). She holds a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Washington.

Becky Lamason was appointed the Robert A. Swanson (1969) Professor of Life Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She joined the faculty at MIT in 2017. Her research is focused on how bacterial pathogens hijack host cell processes to promote infection.

Dr. Lamason is a graduate of Millersville University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in molecular biology. She holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.