Universities Appoint Six Women to Dean Posts

Michèle Alexandre has been named the first African-American dean of the College of Law at Stetson University in Gulfport, Florida. She currently serves as the associate dean for faculty development and intellectual life, a professor of law, and the Leonard B. Melvin Jr. Lecturer at the University of Mississippi School of Law. Professor Alexandre is the author of the civil rights textbook, The New Frontiers of Civil Rights Litigation (Carolina Academic Press, 2019), and Sexploitation: Sexual Profiling and Illusion of Gender (Routledge, 2014).

Professor Alexandre was the first Black valedictorian of Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. She holds a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School.

Kristine L. Blair has been named dean of the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. She currently serves as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and professor of English at Youngstown State University in Ohio.

Dr. Blair holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in English both from California State University, Sacramento and a Ph.D. in English and rhetoric from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Bernadette Boden-Albala has been name director and founding dean of the School of Population Health at the University of California, Irvine. She currently serves as senior associate dean of research and program development in the College of Global Public Health at New York University.

Dr. Boden-Albala holds a master of public health degree and a doctor of public health degree both from Columbia University.

Melissa Gresalfi has been named dean of the Martha Rivers Ingram Commons at Vanderbilt University. She has served as an associate professor of mathematics education and learning sciences at Vanderbilt since 2012.

Dr. Gresalfi is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she double majored in psychology and French. She holds a master’s degree in education and a Ph.D in educational psychology both from Stanford University.

Julia DeLoia has been named dean of graduate studies at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. She was dean and professor of arts & sciences at the Jefferson College of Health Sciences in Roanoke.

Dr. DeLoia is a graduate of Westminster College in Wilmington, Pennsylvania, where she majored in biology. She holds a Ph.D. in human genetics from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Teresa Reed has been named dean of the School of Music at the University of Louisville. She currently serves as a professor of music and associate dean of the Henry Kendall College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.

Dr. Reed is a graduate of Valparaiso University in Indiana. She holds a master’s degree in music theory from the University of Tulsa and a Ph.D. in music theory, music history and literature, and African-American studies from Indiana University.