Nine Women Scholars Who Are Taking on New Duties at Colleges and Universities

Susannah Pollvogt, a professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law, has been named the inaugural associate dean for student success at the law school. Since joining the faculty in 2016, she has been serving as director of academic excellence and bar skills. Prior to joining the University of Arkansas, Pollvogt taught at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, the University of California Irvine School of Law, and Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas.

Professor Pollvogt is a graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts, where she majored in political philosophy. She holds a juris doctorate from Yale Law School.

Belinda Shipps, an associate professor in the College of Business and Economics at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, has been given the added duties of interim director of the Center of Excellence in Cybersecurity Research, Education and Outreach at the univerity.

Dr. Shipps holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Michigan State University. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in management information systems from the Lubar School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Nikki Brown was hired as a professor in the department of history at the University of Kentucky. She was a professor of history at the University of New Orleans. She joined the faculty there in 2008. Dr. Brown is the author of Private Politics and Public Voices: Black Women’s Activism from World War I to the New Deal (Indiana University Press, 2006).

Professor Brown is a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio, where she majored in history. She holds a Ph.D. from Yale University.

Megan Blakemore, an assistant professor at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, was named director of the master in physician assistant studies program at the college. She joined the faculty at the college in 2016.

Dr. Blakemore holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of New Mexico. She earned a master’s degree in physician assistant studies from Missouri State University, and her a doctorate in health administration from the University of Phoenix.

Preminda Jacob, a professor of visual studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, has been given the aded duties as associate dean of research and community engagement for the university’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.

Dr. Jacob is the author of Celluloid Deities: The Visual Culture of Cinema and Politics in South India (Lexington Books, 2008). She holds a Ph.D. in art history from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Hee Jeung Oh will join the department of chemical engineering at Pennsylvania State University this coming January as an assistant professor. Dr. Oh was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and a graduate research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Oh’s research focuses on designing improved polymer membranes. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in chemcial engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Ann Tweedy will join the faculty of the University of South Dakota School of Law in January as an associate professor. She is currently the chair of the Federal Bar Association’s Indian Law Section. Earlier, she taught at Michigan State College of Law, California Western School of Law, Tulsa University College of Law and Hamline University School of Law.

Professor Tweedy is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, where she majored in English and philosophy. She earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing at Hamline University in Minnesota and a juris doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley.

Leila Ladani was appointed the director of The Polytechnic School, one of the six schools in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. Most recently Dr. Ladani was on the faculty of the University of Texas at Arlington, where she directed the Manufacturing Innovation and Catalysis Center. She currently is the editor of the Journal of Materials Science and Engineering.

Dr. Ladani hold bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the Isfahan University of Technology in Iran. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Mary Lynn Reed is the new director of the School of Mathematical Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. She most recently served as the chief of the Mathematics Research Group at the National Security Agency. Earlier in her career, Dr. Reed was an assistant professor at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.

Dr. Reed earned a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She holds a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Illinois.