Five Women Scholars Appointed to University Dean Positions

Melody Lo has been appointed as the dean of the Neil Griffin Endowed Dean in the College of Business at Arkansas State University. She is currently a professor of economics at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She joined the faculty there in 2006 and served as the chair of the economics department from 2014 to 2019.

Professor Lo is a graduate of National Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Kecia M. Thomas has been named dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Thomas will assume her new role on August 1. Professor Thomas currently serves as senior associate dean in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia. She is the author of Diversity Dynamics in the Workplace (Wadsworth Publishing, 2004).

Dr. Thomas earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Spanish from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in industrial/organizational psychology from Pennsylvania State University.

Jodi Sandfort has been named the next dean of the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. She will begin her new job on January 15, 2021. Currently, Dr. Sandfort is a professor in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Sandfort earned a bachelor’s degree in history and women’s studies from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She holds a master’s degree in social work and a doctoral degree in political science and social work from the University of Michigan.

Brooke Kandel-Cisco has been appointed dean of the College of Education at Butler University in Indianapolis. She has served as interim dean since May 2019. Earlier she served as director of the Master of Science in Effective Teaching and Learning program and chair of the College of Education’s graduate programs.

Dr. Kandel-Cisco is a graduate of Goshen College in Indiana, where she majored in psychology. She earned her Ph.D. in educational psychology at Texas A&M University.

Linda C. Niessen has been named the founding dean of the College of Dental Medicine at the Joplin campus of the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. Dr. Niessen previously served as dean and professor at the Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Dr. Niessen holds a master of public policy degree, a master of public health degree, and a doctorate in dental medicine, all from Harvard University.