New Assignments in Higher Education for Nine Women Faculty Members

Catherine Jensen has been named an assistant professor in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University in New Jersey. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

Dr. Peña is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Pardis Mahdavi has been named director of the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. She currently serves as acting dean of the Josek Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

Dr. Mahdavi is a graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles, where she majored in diplomacy and world affairs. She holds a master’s degree in international affairs, a master’s degree in anthropology, and a Ph.D. in sociomedical sciences and anthropology all from Columbia University in New York City.

Chelsea Mikael Frazier has been named an assistant professor in the department of English at Cornell University. As a writer, cultural studies scholar, and educator, her work focuses on the intersection of Black feminist theory and environmental thought. She is currently working on her first book manuscript which is an ecocritical study of contemporary Black women artists, writers, and activists.

Frazier is a graduate of Barnard College in New York City where she majored in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. She holds a master’s degree in American studies from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and a master’s degree in African American studies from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she is currently completing a Ph.D. in African American studies.

Laura Stephenson has been named associate dean and director of the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment. She currently serves as assistant dean of extension and department chair of family and consumer sciences at the University of Tennessee.

Dr. Stephenson holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Eastern Kentucky University, and a doctorate in gerontology from the University of Kentucky.

Keri Colabroy has been promoted to professor of chemistry at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She has been a Muhlenberg faculty member since 2011. She also serves as co-director of the biochemistry program and coordinator of student research and scholarship.

Dr. Colabory is a summa cum laude graduate of Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where she majored in chemistry. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in chemistry both from Cornell University.

Cynthia Nau Cornelissen has been named director of the Center for Translational Immunology in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University. She has also been named a Distinguished University Professor. She currently serves on the faculty at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center.

Dr. Cornelissen holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Illinois.

Joya Misra has been named director of the Institute for Social Science Research in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is a professor of sociology and public policy and has been a faculty member at the university since 1999.

Dr. Misra is a graduate of Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey, where she majored in religion. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. both in sociology from Emory University in Atlanta.

Lisa Kenyon has been named board director of the National Science Teachers Association’s college science teaching division. She is an associate professor of biological sciences at Wright State University in Detroit.

Dr. Kenyon is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City where she majored in biology. She holds a master’s degree in wildlife and fisheries sciences from Texas A&M University and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction-science education from the University of Houston.

Laura Dotson has been named director of practical and associate degree nursing programs at Utah State University. She was the nursing program coordinator at Utah State University Eastern.

Dotson holds a master’s degree in nursing from Chamberlain College of Nursing in St. Louis, Missouri.