Nine Women Scholars Who Have Been Given New Assignments or Duties in Higher Education

Brea Perry, a professor of sociology at Indiana University, is the new associate vice provost for the social sciences in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research at the university. She joined the faculty at the university in 2014 after teaching for six years at the University of Kentucky.

Dr. Perry holds bachelor’s degrees in four majors, a master’s degree, and a Ph.D. in sociology, all from Indiana University.

Stephanie White, an associate professor of pediatrics at the College of Medicine of the University of Kentucky, was given the added duties as associate dean for diversity and inclusion. Earlier, she was the associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.

Dr. White is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she majored in microbiology. She holds a master’s degree in health professions education from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and a medical doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh.

Rebecca Sandefur, a professor of sociology in the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University was appointed editor of Law and Society Review. The journal, founded in 1966, publishes research bearing on the relationship between society and law, legal institutions, and legal processes.

Professor Sandefur joined the faculty at Arizona State University in 2019 after teaching at the University of Illinois and Stanford University. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.

Laura J. Steinberg was named the inaugural Seidner Family Executive Director of the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society at Boston College, effective May 1. She currently serves as a professor of civil and environmental engineering and the interim executive director of the Center of Excellence for Environmental and Energy Systems at Syracuse University in New York.

Professor Steinberg holds a bachelor’s degree in civil and urban engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Sekile M. Nzinga, director of the Women’s Center and a lecturer in Gender & Sexuality Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, was given the added responsibilities of interim chief diversity officer and associate provost for diversity and inclusion. Before coming to Northwestern, Dr. Nzinga was a founding director of a Women & Gender Studies program and a tenured associate professor of social work at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York.

Dr. Nzinga is a graduate of Morgan State University in Baltimore. She earned a master of social work degree at Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in human development from the University of Maryland.

Polly L. Arnold recently joined the chemistry department faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also the director of the chemical sciences division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She was the Crum Brown Chair of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Dr. Arnold earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Sussex in England.

Karleah Harris has been appointed assistant professor in the department of human sciences at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She was a faculty advisor for the Family and Social Work Organization at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Dr. Harris is a graduate of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, where she majored in agricultural education. She holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and a doctorate in educational psychology from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Dee Larson, coordinator of graduate studies in business and professor of marketing and management at Mississippi University for Women, has been named chair of the department of business at the university. She joined the faculty at the university in 1998.

Dr. Larson holds a bachelor’s degree, an MBA, and a Ph.D. in business administration, all from Mississippi State University.

Tricia Starks was appointed director of the new Arkansas Humanities Center. She is a professor of history at the university. Her latest book is Smoking under the Tsars: A History of Tobacco in Imperial Russia (Cornell University Press, 2018).

Professor Starks holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in history from Ohio State University.