New Assignments for Nine Women Scholars at Colleges and Universities

Ashley Hodgson has been appointed to the newly endowed Frank Gery Professorship in Economics at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Dr. Hodgson, whose research focuses on health care systems and blockchain economics, has taught at St. Olaf College since 2011.

Professor Hodgson is a graduate of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jacqueline Hill has been appointed head of the nursing department at Bowie State University in Maryland. She had served as interim dean, associate dean, chairperson for the undergraduate nursing program and a tenured faculty member at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Dr. Hill holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from Southern University. She earned a doctorate in educational leadership, research, and counseling from Louisiana State University.

Kelly Rossetto, an associate professor in the department of communication and media at Boise State University in Idaho, has been given the added duties as faculty director of the GradWell program at the university. The program focuses on providing mental wellness education and individual and group mental health counseling exclusively for graduate students.

Dr. Rosetto is a graduate of the University of California, Davis. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Montana and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Li Tian, an associate professor in the department of plant sciences at the University of California, Davis, will be a co-director of the university’s Cannabis and Hemp Research Center. Dr. Tian’s research focuses on how phytonutrients — natural chemicals with benefits for human health — are made and controlled in plants.

Dr. Tian holds a Ph.D. in plant biology from Michigan State University.

Reeta Rao, professor of biology and biotechnology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, was given the additional responsibilities of associate dean of graduate studies. Professor Rao’s primary research is on emerging infectious diseases, with a focus on the understanding and management of fungal diseases.

Dr. Rao is a graduate of the Birla Institute of Science and Technology in Pilani, India. She holds master’s degrees in bioscience and biotechnology and environmental sciences from Drexel University in Philadelphia, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Pennsylvania State University.

Leah Cox is a new tenured associate professor of dance in the department of theatre and dance at the University of Texas at Austin. She was dean of the American Dance Festival and associate professor of Dance at Bard College in New York.

Cox is a graduate of Texas Christian University. She holds a master of fine arts degree from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia.

Zoubeida Ounaies, professor and associate head for administration in the department of mechanical engineering at Pennsylvania State University, has been named the inaugural director of the Penn State Convergence Center for Living Multifunctional Material Systems. Before joining Penn State’s College of Engineering in 2011, Dr. Ounaies was an associate professor of aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University.

After completing her primary and high school education in Tunisia, Dr. Zoubeida earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees at Pennsylvania State University.

Teresa Y. Smith was appointed associate dean for graduate medical education and affiliations for the State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University College of Medicine in Brooklyn. Dr. Smith is currently an associate professor of clinical emergency medicine at the College of Medicine.

Dr. Smith is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta and received her medical degree at New York University. She also holds a master’s degree in medical education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Margaret Anne McManus was appointed chair of the department of oceanography in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. She is the first woman to chair the department in its 56-year history.

Dr. McManus earned her Ph.D. in oceanography from the Center for Coastal Physical Oceanography at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.