New Positions or Roles for Eight Women Scholars in Higher Education

Hala Madanat, a distinguished professor and director of the School of Public Health at San Diego State University, has been given the added duties of interim vice president for research. Dr. Madanat joined the university’s faculty in 2008. Earlier, she served in faculty positions at Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University in Provo Utah.

Dr. Madanat holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Jordan. She earned a master’s degree in community health sciences and a Ph.D. in sociology from Brigham Young University.

Jervette R. Ward, an associate professor of English at Mississippi State University, has been chosen to lead the College Language Association. She will serve as vice president for two years and become president of the association in 2022.

Dr. Ward is the editor of Real Sister: Stereotypes, Respectability, and Black Women in Reality TV (Rutgers University Press, 2015).  She joined the faculty at Mississippi State University in 2018 after teaching at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Dr. Ward holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Memphis.

Grace Bagwell Adams, an associate professor in the department of health policy and management at the Univerity of Georgia, has been named to assistant dean for outreach, engagement, and equity at the university’s College of Public Health. She joined the faculty at the university in 2014.

Dr. Bagwell Adams is a graduate of Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She holds a master of public administration degree and a Ph.D. in public administration and policy from the University of Georgia.

Alexis Smith Washington, an associate professor of management at the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University, was given the added duties of senior inclusion officer at the business school. She joined the faculty at Oklahoma State in 2012.

Dr. Smith Washington is a graduate of Rice University in Houston Texas, where she majored in psychology. She holds a PhD. in organizational behavior from Tulane University in New Orleans.

Laurie Bellows, a professor of practice in educational psychology and a member of the graduate faculty in the department of educational psychology at the University of Nebraska, was named vice chancellor for student affairs.

Dr. Bellows holds a bachelor’s degree in education, a master’s degree in human development, and a doctoral degree in psychological and cultural studies from the University of Nebraska.

Nancy López was appointed associate vice president in the Division of Equity and Inclusion at the University of New Mexico. She joined the faculty at the university in 2001 as an assistant professor of sociology. She was promoted to full professor in 2018.

Dr. López is a graduate of Columbia University in New York City, where she majored in Latin American studies. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Tonya Perry, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, was appointed director of the Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color program of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Dr. Perry earned her bachelor’s degree in English education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a master’s degree in English education from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a doctorate in educational leadership with a concentration in English and secondary curriculum from the University of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Sarah Lee has been named director of the University of Southern Mississippi School of Computing Sciences and Computer Engineering. Since 2011 she has served on the faculty and in leadership roles in the department of computer science and engineering at Mississippi State University.

Dr. Lee holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and computer information systems from Mississippi University for Women. She earned a master’s degree in computer science from Mississippi State University and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Memphis.