Three Women Scholars Who Have Been Appointed Heads of Their Departments

Laura Bittner, a professor in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at New Mexico State University, is the new interim chair of the 4-H Youth Development department for New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension Service. During her 11 years at New Mexico State University, Dr. Bittner has progressed from assistant professor to full professor while serving as the county program director and Extension family and consumer science agent in Valencia County.

Dr. Bittner holds a master’s degree in marketing from Utah State University and a Ph.D. in educational leadership and administration from New Mexico State University.

Shawn Ricks has been named chair of the department of leadership and educational studies in the  Reich College of Education at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. Dr. Ricks comes to Appalachian State from Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she served as assistant vice president of equity, diversity, and inclusion. She has also served as an associate professor of counseling and human services at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and as chair and associate professor of human service studies at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina.

Dr. Ricks holds a bachelor’s degree in African and African American studies and a master’s degree in counselor education from Pennsylvania State University. She earned a Ph.D. in educational leadership and cultural foundations from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Sarah L. Berga has been appointed as the new chair of the department of obstetrics and gynecology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York System. Dr. Berga has been serving as professor and director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in the University of Utah’s School of Medicine’s department of obstetrics and gynecology.

Dr. Berga received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and obtained her medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine.