Eight Women Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Dean Posts at Colleges and Universities

Suzanna Conrad has been named dean of University Libraries for Towson University in Maryland, effective August 1. Conrad joins Towson University from the University Library at California State University, Sacramento, where she is the associate dean of digital technologies and resource management.

Conrad holds a master of library and information science degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from the University of East London.

Annice D. Yarber-Allen has been named dean of the College of Letters and Sciences at Columbus State University in Georgia. She has been serving as the interim dean of the College since June 2019. Dr. Yarber-Allen joined the faculty at the university in 2018 as a professor and chair of the department of criminal justice and sociology. Earlier, she chaired the department of sociology, anthropology, and geography at the Montgomery, Alabama, campus of Auburn University.

Dr. Yarber-Allen holds a bachelor’s degree in social work and a Ph.D. in medical sociology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She also earned a master of social work degree at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Whitney Daugherty was appointed assistant provost and dean of students at Vincennes University in Indiana. She previously was the university’s director of student activities.

Daugherty is a graduate of Indiana University East, where she majored in social work. She holds a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs from Indiana State Unversity.

Amanda Bryant-Friedrich has been selected to serve as the next dean of the Wayne State University Graduate School. She will begin on August 1. Dr. Bryant-Friedrich has been serving as a professor of medicinal and biological chemistry and dean of the College of Graduate Studies at the University of Toledo in Ohio. Since 2018, she has also served as vice provost for graduate affairs.

Professor Bryant-Friedrich earned her master of science in chemistry from Duke University in 1992 and her Ph.D. in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1997 from Ruprecht-Karls Universität in Heidelberg, Germany.

Jackie Trischman was appointed interim dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at California State University, San Marcos. She has been on the faculty for 25 years and will serve a one-year term as dean while a search for a permanent dean is conducted.

Dr. Trischman earned her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Virginia Tech and her Ph.D. in marine chemistry from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

Tracy Johnson, professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology and holder of the Keith and Cecilia Terasaki Presidential Endowed Chair, has been named dean of the division of life sciences in the college at the University of California, Los Angeles, effective Sept. 1. She joined the faculty at UCLA in 2014.

Professor Johnson earned her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and cell biology at the University of California, San Diego and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Sarah Feldner was named dean of the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University in Milwaukee. She had been serving as acting dean since November 2018. Earlier, she was the college’s associate dean for graduate studies and research.

Dr. Felder, who is a professor of communication studies, is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Kentucky, where she majored in communication. She holds a master’s degree in speech communication from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in organizational communication from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Sevin Yeltekin, the Rohet Tolani Distinguished Professor of Economics and senior associate dean of education at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, has been appointed the next dean of the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester in New York. Dr. Yeltekin joined the Tepper School in 2005 as an assistant professor of economics and was named professor in 2017.

Professor Yeltekin received a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics from Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.

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