Three Women Appointed Regents Professors at Arizona State University

Arizona State University has announced the appointment of five scholars as Regents Professors, the highest faculty rank at the university. Mark Searle, executive vice president and provost at Arizona State University, stated that “the 2019 Regents’ Professors are pioneers in ecology, engineering, judicial decision making, business, and social evolution. Their scholarship contributes to the better understanding of our world, environment and each other. The entire ASU community celebrates their great achievement.”

Three of the new Regents Professors are women.

Nancy Grimm is the Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Ecology. She studies the interaction of climate variation and change, human activities, and ecosystems. She began her academic career at Arizona State in 1985 as a faculty research associate in the department of zoology. Dr. Grimm is a graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in zoology from Arizona State University.

Joan Silk is a professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. She joined the faculty in 2012 after teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles since 1986. Her research is focused on how natural selection shapes the evolution of social behavior in primates. Dr. Silk is a graduate of Pitzer College in Claremont, California. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Davis.

Cassia Spohn is a professor and director of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. She is the author or co-author of seven books, including Policing and Prosecuting Sexual Assault: Inside the Criminal Justice System (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2013). Professor Spohn joined the faculty at Arizona State University in 2006 after teaching for nearly two decades at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.  Dr. Spohn holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.