Four Women Scholars Who Are Taking on New Assignments in the Academic World

Leslie Babinski has been named director of the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy. She is an associate research professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Dr. Babinski is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree in educational psychology and human development and a Ph.D. in educational psychology and school psychology both from the University of California Berkeley.

Ashlee N. Ford Versypt has been voted chair-elect for the American Society for Engineering Education Chemical Engineering Division. She will serve in a three-year term, first as chair-elect, followed by chair, and finally past chair. She currently serves as an assistant professor in chemical engineering at Oklahoma State University.

Dr. Versypt is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma where she majored in chemical engineering and minored in mathematics. She holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and computational science and engineering both from the University of Illinois.

Tracy Fessenden has been named the director of strategic initiatives for the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University. She is a professor of religious studies in the university’s School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies and served as interim director during the past academic year.

Dr. Fessenden is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University where she majored in English. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Virginia.

Amy W. Apon was appointed the C. Tycho Howle Director of the School of Computing at Clemson University in South Carolina. Dr. Apon has been on the school’s faculty for eight years, serving as the chair of the Division of Computer Science. Before joining the faculty at Clemson, she started the Arkansas High Performance Computing Center and served as its founding director.

Dr. Apon holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Missouri. She earned a Ph.D. in computer science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.