Mount Holyoke College Awards Tenure to Seven Women Faculty Members

Mount Holyoke College, the selective liberal arts educational institution for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts, has announced that it has awarded tenure to nine faculty members. “We are excited to recognize and acknowledge the outstanding teaching, scholarship, and mentorship of this group of colleagues,” said Jon Western, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty. “Their intellectual and creative contributions have had a profound impact on the college’s curriculum and academic reputation and we are excited to see what comes next.”

Seven of those granted tenure are women.

Olivia Aguilar was tenured as an associate professor of environmental studies. She also serves as the Leslie and Sarah Miller Director of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment. Her research examines how environmental and science learning communities can be more inclusive of groups traditionally marginalized. Dr. Aguilar holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in horticulture science from Texas A&M University. She earned a Ph.D. in natural resources at Cornell University.

Riché J. Daniel Barnes is an associate professor of gender studies. She is a sociocultural anthropologist whose teaching and research specializations are at the intersection of Black feminist theories, work and family policy, and raced, gendered, and classed identity formation. Dr. Barnes is the author of Raising the Race: Black Career Women Redefine Marriage, Motherhood, and Community (Rutgers University Press, 2015). Dr. Barnes is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta. She holds a master’s degree from Georgia State University and a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Emory University in Atlanta.

Naomi Darling, is an associate professor of sustainable architecture She is a practicing architect and educator whose professional work, research, and teaching lie at the intersection of climate, culture, and materiality. Darling holds a bachelor’s degree in structural engineering and architecture from Princeton University in New Jersey, a master of fine arts degree in sculpture from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and a master of architecture degree from the Yale School of Architecture.

Nina Emery is an associate professor of philosophy. Dr. Emery teaches a range of classes at the intersection of science and philosophy, including classes on the philosophy of time, the foundations of quantum mechanics, and ethical issues in contemporary science. Dr. Emery is a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she double majored in philosophy and physics. She earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kerstin Nordstrom is an associate professor of physics. She works in the area of soft matter physics and is interested in the mechanical behavior of non-Newtonian materials, such as particulates, biological fluids, and active matter systems (robot swarms). She has served on the American Physical Society’s Committee on the Status of Women in Physics. Dr. Nordstrom is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She earned a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Heather Pon-Barry is an associate professor of computer science. She specializes in spoken-language processing, dialogue, and human-robot interaction. At Mount Holyoke, Dr.  Pon-Barry teaches courses in artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and advanced object-oriented programming. She previously was an assistant professor of computer science at Arizona State University. Dr. Pon-Barry holds a bachelor’s degree in symbolic systems from Stanford University and a doctorate in computer science from Harvard University.

Jennifer Wallace Jacoby is an associate professor of psychology and education. She seeks to understand how teachers can best support the learning of linguistically and socioeconomically diverse groups of children. Dr. Jacoby is a graduate of Amherst College in Massachusetts. She earned a master’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree and an educational doctorate from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.