Five Women Faculty Members Who Are Taking on New Roles in Higher Education

Ching-Hsun Huang has been named head of the department of sustainable biomaterials in the College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She was a professor of forest economics and forest management at Northern Arizona University.

Dr. Huang is a graduate of Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan. She holds a master’s degree in environmental management from the University of Houston-Clear Lake and a Ph.D. in forest economics from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Varsha Castro Gusman has been appointed as director of the new physician’s assistant program at Xavier University in New Orleans. She will also serve as a clinical assistant professor of professional programs in the physician assistant department.

Gusman earned a bachelor’s degree in biology at Xavier University and a master’s degree in the physician assistant program at Our Lady of the Lake College in Baton Rouge.

Francesca dePasquale has joined the violin teaching faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. She has previously taught at Rutgers University in New Jersey, the Juilliard School in New York, and the Heifetz International Music Institute in Staunton, Virginia.

DePasquale is a graduate of the Juilliard School and the Colburn School in Los Angeles.

Penny Yee will be the next associate dean of faculty at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. She will assume her new duties on July 1. Dr. Yee, who holds the James L. Ferguson Chair in psychology at the college, served as associate dean of faculty from 2013 to 2018.

Professor Yee earned a bachelor’s degree from Pomona College in Claremont, California. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in human experimental psychology from the University of Oregon. Dr. Yee joined the Hamilton faculty in 1991.

Tracy V. Dunbar has been named chair of the department of agriculture at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She joined the department’s faculty in 1997 and teaches graduate courses in ecological economics and environmental policy analysis and undergraduate courses in farm management and agricultural finance, policy, and marketing.

Dr. Dunbar has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She earned a master’s degree in agricultural economics-agricultural production and marketing from Pennsylvania State University and a doctoral degree in resource development-community economic development from Michigan State University.