Nine Women Scholars in Academia Who Are Taking on New Duties

Rocío Titiunik has been named a professor of politics at Princeton University in New Jersey. She was the James Orin Murfin Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Titiunik is a graduate of the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Gloria Boutte has been named the recipient of a Carolina Distinguished Professorship at the University of South Carolina. She has been a faculty member since 1991 and founded the Center of Excellence for the Education and Equity of African American Studies in 2002.

Dr. Boutte holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, a master’s degree in child development from Iowa State University, and a Ph.D. in educational research from the University of South Carolina.

DenYelle Baete Kenyon has been named associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the University of South Dakota’s Sanford School of Medicine. She will also serve as director of the university’s School of Health Sciences’ master of public health program. She has been a scientist and researcher at Sanford Research in Sioux Falls since 2008.

Dr. Kenyon holds a Ph.D. in family studies and human development from the University of Arizona.

Kristan Venegas is the inaugural holder of the LaFetra College of Education Endowed Chair for Teaching, Education, and Excellence at the University of La Verne in California. She will also serve as associate dean for education transformation and faculty affairs at the college. She was a professor of clinical education and a research associate in the Pullias Center for Higher Education in the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California.

Dr. Venegas holds a bachelor’s degree in English, a master’s degree in education, and a doctorate in education policy analysis from the University of Southern California.

Beverly Westerman has been appointed faculty athletics representative at George Washington University. She is an associate professor and vice chair for undergraduate studies in the department of exercise and nutrition sciences in the Milken Institute School of Public Health.

Dr. Westerman holds an educational doctorate from George Washington University.

Holly Tucker has been named director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She is a professor of French and the Mellon Foundation Chair in the Humanities.

Dr. Tuck is a graduate of Indiana University where she double majored in French and political science. She holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Maggie Solberg has been promoted to a tenured position at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. She has been an assistant professor of English at Bowdoin since 2013.

Dr. Solberg holds a bachelor’s degree from Saint Hilda’s College at the University of Oxford in England and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

Naudia Jonassaint has been named vice chair for diversity and inclusion for the department of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is an assistant professor of medicine and medical director of clinical hepatology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian.

Dr. Jonassaint is an honors graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where she double majored in biology and Hispanic and Italian studies. She holds a medical doctorate from Yale University.

Nancy Sottos has been named to the Swanlund Endowed Chair in the department of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois. She is the Donald B. Willet Professor of Engineering.

Dr. Sottos holds a bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. both in mechanical engineering from the University of Delaware.