Ten Women Scholars Who Will Be Taking on New Assignments at Colleges and Universities

Elena Klimova was appointed chair of the department of mathematics at Bowie State University in Maryland. She has been a faculty member at the university since 2008.

Dr. Klimova holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in mathematics, mathematics education and computer science from Moscow State Pedagogical University in Russia. She earned a Ph.D. in mathematics and theoretical physics from the Higher Attestation Commission in Russia.

Anne Mitchell Whisnant has been named the director of Graduate Liberal Studies program at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. From 2006 to 2016, she was the deputy secretary of the faculty in the Office of Faculty Governance at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Earlier in her career, Dr. Whisnant was the assistant director for communications and programs for the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke. She is the author of Super-Scenic Motorway: A Blue Ridge Parkway History (University of North Carolina Press, 2005).

Dr. Whisnant is a graduate of Birmingham Southern College in Alabama. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Rachael Lee, an assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been named the medical school’s healthcare epidemiologist. She joined the faculty at the university in 2015.

Dr. Lee earned her medical degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Veena Kulkarni, an associate professor of sociology at Arkansas State University, was given the added duties as grants coordinator for the College of Liberal Arts and Communication at the university. Dr. Kulkarni has been on the faculty at the university since 2008.

Dr. Kulkarni holds a master’s degree in economics from Delhi University in India and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Maryland College Park.

Jill E. Blondin was appointed executive director of the Global Education Office at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. She joined the faculty in 2013 as an associate professor. Earlier, she was an associate professor of art history at the University of Texas at Tyler.

Dr. Blondin is a graduate of Indiana University. She holds a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Illinois.

Tracy L. Nelson, a professor in the department of health and exercise science, has been named director of the Colorado School of Public Health at Colorado State University. She was appointed associate director of the school in 2011.

Professor Nelson is a graduate of Colorado State University. She holds a master of public health degree from the University of Northern Colorado and a Ph.D. in biobehavioral health from Pennsylvania State University.

Sarah Projansky, who holds joint appointments as a professor of film and media arts and gender studies at the University of Utah, will take on the added duties of the associate vice president for faculty at the university. Professor Projansky joined the faculty at the university in 2012 after teaching at the University of Illinois.

Dr. Projansky is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in communications and film studies at the University of Iowa.

Cathleen Piazza was appointed professor in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey, effective in December. She has been serving as a professor of pediatrics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Dr. Piazza holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, all from Tulane University in New Orleans.

Kerstin Hamann, a Pegasus Professor at the University of Central Florida, was named director of the new School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs at the university. Dr. Hamann is the former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Political Science Education.

Dr. Hamann is a graduate of Eberhard-Karls-Universität in Tübingen, Germany. She earned two master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science at Washington University in St. Louis.

Rebecca Biron, a professor of Spanish and comparative literature and former dean of the College at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, has been named director of the Leslie Center for the Humanities. Professor Biron specializes in Latin American literary and cultural studies, literary theory, gender studies, and Mexican cultural criticism.

Dr. Biron joined the faculty at Dartmouth College in 2006. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia and earned a PhD. at the University of Iowa.