Seven Women Faculty Members at Colleges and Universities Who Are Taking on New Assignments

Fathima Wakeel will become an associate professor in the College of Health at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in January. She is a founding faculty member of the public health program at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.

Dr. Wakeel holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master of public health degree from the University of South Florida. She earned a Ph.D. in public health at the Univerity of California, Los Angeles.

Verónica Montecinos was named a Distinguished Professor at Pennsylvania State University Greater Allegheny in McKeesport. Professor Montecinos joined the university in 1990 as an assistant professor of sociology.

Dr. Montecinos is a graduate of the Catholic University of Chile. She holds master’s degrees in sociology and political science and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh.

Manisha Padi is a new assistant professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. She was a lecturer and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago School of Law. Dr. Padi studies the law and economics of consumer financial contracts.

Dr. Padi holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics and a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She earned a juris doctorate at Yale Law School.

Olivia Aguilar was named an associate professor of environmental studies at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She will also serve as the Leslie and Sarah Miller Director of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment at the college. Dr. Agilar has been teaching at Denison University in Granville, Ohio.

Dr. Aguilar earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in horticulture science from Texas A&M University. She earned a doctorate in environmental education from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Leah Seppanen Anderson was named the inaugural executive director of the University of Pennsylvania’s new Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program. The Paideia Program, announced in March with a $6 million gift from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, reimagines the ancient Greek ideal Paideia —“education of the whole person”— for the 21st century and beyond, with courses focusing on wellness, service, and citizenship. Dr. Anderson is currently associate director of the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship at Princeton University. Earlier, she taught for 14 years as an associate and assistant professor of politics and international relations at Wheaton College.

Dr. Anderson is a summa cum laude graduate of Wheaton College where she majored in political science and history. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Stacey Bent, the Jagdeep and Roshni Singh Professor in the School of Engineering and professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University, has been given the added duties as vice provost for graduate education and postdoctoral affairs.

Dr. Bent is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in chemical engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University.

Sheria D. Rowe, an assistant professor of business administration and chair of the computer information system program at St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina, has been given the added responsibilities of assistant dean of the School of Business, Management and Technology.

Dr. Rowe is a graduate of St. Augustine’s University, where she majored in accounting. She holds a master’s degree in information science from North Carolina Central Univerity and a Ph.D. in business administration from Argosy University.