Three Women Appointed to Dean Posts at Colleges and Universities

Kathryn Lofton has been appointed to a five-year term as dean of humanities for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale University. She has been serving as acting dean. Dr. Lofton is a professor of religious studies, American studies, history, and divinity. She has been serving as chair of the department of religious studies at Yale. Her most recent book is Consuming Religion (University of Chicago Press, 2017).

Professor Lofton is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where she majored in history and religion. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Rosita Sands was selected as dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts at Columbia College in Chicago. She has been serving as interim dean since 2018. Prior to her tenure at Columbia College, which began in 2000, she served as coordinator of music education at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and graduate coordinator and director of music education at California State University, Long Beach.

Dr. Sands, who holds an educational doctorate, previously chaired the department of music and was the executive director of the Center for Black Music Research at the college.

Dayna Bowen Matthew, a lawyer and legal scholar with three decades of industry and academic experience and a nationally recognized expert in health equity and public health policy, has been named the next dean of the School of Law at George Washington University. When she takes office on July 1, she will be the first woman to lead the law school. Dr. Matthew is currently the William L. Matheson and Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor of Law and the F. Palmer Weber Research Professor of Civil Liberties and Human Rights at the University of Virginia Law School. She is also a professor of public health sciences at the university’s School of Medicine. Earlier in her career, Professor Matthew was professor of law, vice dean and associate dean of academic affairs at the University of Colorado Law School. She is the author of Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care (New York University Press, 2015).

Dr. Matthew received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University. She holds a juris doctorate from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in health and behavioral sciences from the University of Colorado at Denver.