Seven Universities Announce the Appointment of Women Scholars to Dean Positions

Susan Parish has been named dean of the College of Health Professions at Virginia Commonwealth University. She most recently served as dean and professor of health sciences in the Bouvè College of Health Sciences at Northwestern University.

Dr. Parish holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature and a master of social work degree both from Rutgers University in New Jersey, and a Ph.D. from the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Claire Stewart has been named dean of University Libraries at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She currently serves as associate university librarian for research and learning at the University of Minnesota Libraries.

Stewart is a graduate of St. Mary’s College where she majored in English literature with a minor in humanistic studies. She holds a master of library and information science degree from Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois.

Larisa Genin has been named dean of the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University in Kansas. She currently serves as associate dean of the School of Economics and Business Administration at Saint Mary’s College of California.

Dr. Genin is a graduate of the University of San Francisco where she majored in business administration and international business with an emphasis on marketing. She holds an MBA in management and a doctorate in business administration in marketing both from Golden Gate University.

Gretchen Ritter was executive dean and vice provost for the College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio State University. She is the former Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Earlier in her career, Dr. Ritter was a professor of government and vice provost at the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Ritter is a graduate of Cornell University, where she majored in government. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Rachel Nardo will be the next dean of the Caine College of Arts at Utah State University. For the past seven years, Dr. Nardo was director of the international summer arts program in the Office of the Chancellor of the California State University System. Dr. Nardo will also hold a faculty position in the department of music at Utah State.

Dr. Nardo is a graduate of California State University, Northridge, where she majored in music. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Illinois and a doctorate in musical arts from the University of Southern California.

The University of Wyoming has named Barbara Rasco as dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. She has been serving as the director of the School of Food Science, a joint effort of Washington State University and the University of Idaho.

Dr. Rasco is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a Ph.D. in food science and nutrition from the University of Massachusetts and a law degree from Seattle University.

Tamar Szabó Gendler has been reappointed as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale University. She is the Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy and professor of psychology and cognitive science at Yale. In 2010, Professor Gendler became the first woman to chair the Yale philosophy department in its two-century history.

Dr. Gendler is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, where she double majored in humanities and mathematics-and-philosophy. She earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at Harvard University.