Four Women Scholars Appointed to Endowed Chairs at Colleges and Universities

Annette Gordon-Reed, the Charles Warren Professor of American History at Harvard Law School and professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, has been named the Charles M. Loeb University Professor, Harvard’s highest faculty honor. She joined the faculty at Harvard in 2010 after teaching at New York Law School. Her book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton, 2008), won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

Professor Gordon-Reed is a graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she majored in history. She earned a juris doctorate at Harvard Law School.

Susan Loepp was appointed the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Mathematics at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. She joined the faculty at the college in 1996. Dr. Loepp is the co-author of Protecting Information: From Classical Error Correction to Quantum Cryptography (Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Professor Loepp is a graduate of Bethel College in Kansas, where she double majored in mathematics and physics. She holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Barbara Ransby has been named to the John D. MacArthur Endowed Chair at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a professor of history, gender and women’s studies, and Black studies. Dr. Ransby is the author of three books including her latest work Making All Black Lives Matter: Reimagining Freedom in the 21st Century (University of California Press, 2018).

A native of Detroit, Dr. Ransby earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Columbia University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan.

Lesley A. Ross will serve as the SmartLIFE Endowed Chair in Aging and Cognition, the first endowed chair in the College of Behavioral, Social, and Health Sciences at Clemson University in South Carolina. She will hold a tenured faculty position in the psychology department and will serve as associate director for the Clemson University Institute for Engaged Aging. Dr. Ross has been serving as an associate professor of human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Ross earned a Ph.D. and master’s degree in lifespan development psychology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She holds a master’s degree in secondary education and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and French from the University of Montevallo in Alabama.