Nine Women Scholars Who Are Taking on New Assignments in Higher Education

Anu Ramaswami has been named professor of India studies, professor of civil and environmental engineering, professor of the Princeton Environmental Institute, and the inaugural director of the M.S. Chadha Center for Global India at Princeton University in New Jersey. She currently serves as the Charles M. Denny Jr. Chair of Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy and professor of bioproducts and biosystems at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Ramaswami is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai where she majored in chemical engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Lynette Yarger has been named the inaugural assistant dean for equity and inclusion for the Schreyer Honors College at Pennsylvania State University. She is an associate professor of information sciences and technology at Penn State.

Dr. Yarger is a graduate of Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York, where she majored in computer and information systems. She holds a master’s degree and doctoral degree both in computer information systems from Georgia State University.

Rebecca L. Shuford has been named director of the New York Sea Grant Institute at Stony Brook University. She previously served as a fisheries biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Dr. Shuford is a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she majored in environmental biology. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. both in marine science from the University of South Carolina.

Linda White has been named interim chair of the Division of Fine Arts and Humanities at LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Tennessee. She currently serves as an associate professor of English and has been a LeMoyne-Owen faculty member for 20 years.

Dr. White holds a bachelor’s degree in English and theatre and a master’s degree in creative writing both from the University of Memphis, and a Ph.D. in African American literature from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Teenie Matlock has been named vice provost for the faculty at the University of California, Merced. She currently serves as a full professor and holds the McClatchy Chair in Communication. Dr. Matlock has been a faculty member at the university since 2004.

Dr. Matlock holds a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies and a master’s degree in linguistics both from California State University, Fresno. She earned a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Lolita Buckner Inniss has been named senior associate dean for academic affairs at the Southern Methodist University School of Law in Dallas. Her appointment makes her the law school’s first Black associate dean. She is also the school’s first Black woman to serve at the rank of full professor.

Dr. Inniss is a graduate of Princeton University in New Jersey. She holds a juris doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles and a master of laws degree and Ph.D. in law both from York University in Canada.

Becky Spurlock has been named assistant professor in the College of Education and vice president for student development and leadership at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa. She currently serves as associate vice president and senior associate dean of student life at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.

Dr. Spurlock holds a bachelor’s degree in recreational administration and a master of education degree in counseling and guidance both from Texas State University. She earned a Ph.D. in higher education administration from Texas A&M University.

Nefertiti Walker has been named interim associate chancellor for diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She currently serves as a faculty member in the university’s Isenberg School of Management and as associate dean for inclusive organization.

Dr. Walker holds a bachelor’s degree and MBA both from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. She holds a Ph.D. in sport management from the University of Florida.

Jean Beaman has been named an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was a faculty member at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, with affiliations in African-American studies, global studies, and American studies. She is the author of Citizen Outsider: Children of North African Immigrants in France (University of California Press, 2017).

Dr. Beaman holds a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and Ph.D. all from Northwestern University.