Three Women Scholars Who Have Announced Their Retirements

Marlene Sprouse, president of Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa, has announced that she will be leaving the position this fall after six and a half years at the helm. Dr. Sprouse became the college’s fourth president in 2013. She began her career two decades ago as the dean of the Centerville campus and two years later became the vice president of academic affairs.

Dr. Sprouse is a graduate of Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Patricia Johnson served as an educator and researcher at South Dakota State University for 33 years. She was the second woman in the United States to be hired to a faculty position in range science. Professor Johnson conducted research focused on grazing management, plant and animal interactions, the ecology of prairie dog towns, and plant responses to herbivory and livestock and wildlife interactions.

Dr. Johnson is a graduate of Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, where she majored in mathematics and biology. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in range management from Utah State University.

Susan Basow, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology at Lafayette, College in Easton, Pennsylvania, is retiring after 43 years of teaching. She was the first woman in the psychology department to get tenure and third to be promoted to professor. Dr. Basow also served on the college’s Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Advisory Committee.

Dr. Basow is a graduate of Rutgers University in New Jersey and holds a Ph.D. from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.