Seven Women Taking on New Faculty Assignments in Higher Education

Sabeeha Merchant has been appointed as a professor of plant and microbial biology and molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She was a professor of biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Merchant holds a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Narda E. Alcorn has been named chair of the stage management department at the Yale School of Drama and Stage Management Advisor at the Yale Repertory Theatre. She was an associate professor and head of stage management training at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Professor Alcorn holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from DePaul University in Chicago and a master of fine arts degree from the Yale School of Drama.

Isobel Ojaivo has been named an assistant professor of physics at Princeton University in New Jersey. She previously served as a Dicke Fellow at Princeton.

Dr. Ojaivo holds a dual bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and a Ph.D. in physics with a concentration in high energy particle physics and a minor in experimental particle physics from the University of Wisconsin.

Laurel Fulkerson has been named associate vice president for research at Florida State University. She currently serves as a professor of classics and as associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Fulkerson holds a bachelor’s degree in classics, a master’s degree in Latin, a master’s degree in classical philology, and a Ph.D. in classics all from Columbia University.

Kendra Sharp has been named senior advisor to the provost for international affairs at Oregon State University. She currently serves as the Richard and Gretchen Evans Professor in Humanitarian Engineering in the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and as the founder and director of the Humanitarian Engineering Program.

Dr. Sharp holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois, master’s degrees from the University of Cambridge in England and the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in theoretical and applied mechanics from the University of Illinois.

Valerie Zimany has been named chair of the art department at Clemson University in South Carolina. She is an associate professor of art and had been serving as interim chair since May 2017.

Professor Zimany holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in crafts/ceramics and art education from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and a master of fine arts degree in crafts/ceramics from Kanazawa College of Art in Japan.

Melicia Whitt-Glover has been named executive director for the Center for Excellence in Eliminating Health Disparities at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. She has been serving as interim director since 2016.

Dr. Whitt-Glover holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in exercise physiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a doctorate in epidemiology from the University of South Carolina.