Seven Women Scholars Taking on New Faculty Assignments at Colleges and Universities

Concetta M. Tomaino was named Distinguished Professor of Creative Arts at Concordia College in Mount Vernon, New York. She has been serving as the executive director of the Institute of Music and Neurologic Function, also in Mount Vernon. Dr. Tomaino will establish a master’s degree program in music therapy at the college.

Dr. Tomaino is a graduate of Stony Brook University in New York, where she majored in music performance with a minor in psychology. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in music therapy from New York University.

Iryna Vushko was appointed an assistant professor of history at Princeton University. Since 2012, she has been an assistant professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York. She is an expert in the history of modern Europe. Dr. Vushko is the author of The Politics of Cultural Retreat: Imperial Bureaucracy in Austrian Galicia, 1772-1867 (Yale University Press, 2015).

Dr. Vushko is a graduate of L’Viv National University in Ukraine. She holds a master’s degree from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and a Ph.D. from Yale University.

April L. Jones was appointed chair of the department of social work at Tuskegee University in Alabama. For the past 10 years, Dr. Jones has served as the family advocacy outreach manager at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.

Dr. Jones is a graduate of Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She earned a master of social work degree at the University of Alabama and a master’s degree in management from Faulkner University in Montgomery. Dr. Jones earned a third master’s degree in instructional design and technology and a doctorate in organizational psychology from Walden University.

Jennifer A. Phillips was promoted to associate professor of medicine and associate professor of molecular microbiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She was also granted tenure.

Dr. Phillips is a summa cum laude graduate of Columbia University in New York City, where she majored in biochemistry. She earned her medical degree and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.

Monique L. Akassi, who has been serving as an associate professor of English and chair of the department of languages and literature at Virginia Union University in Richmond, was named associate provost for faculty affairs at Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida. Earlier in her career, she served on the faculty at Morgan State University in Baltimore and Bowie State University in Maryland.

Dr. Akassi is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. She holds a master’s degree from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and a Ph.D. from Morgan State University.

Carol Connell, professor of nutrition at the University of Southern Mississippi, was given the added duties of associate dean for research and graduate education for the College of Education and Human Sciences. She joined the faculty at the university in 2005.

Dr. Connell holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Auburn University in her home state of Alabama. She earned a doctorate at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Josie Gatti Schafer, an assistant professor of political science at Kansas State University, has been named director of the Center for Public Affairs Research in the College of Public Affairs and Community Service at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

Dr. Schafer holds a bachelor’s degree and a master of public administration degree from Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. She earned a Ph.D. in public affairs from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.