Three Universities Make Appointments of Women to Dean Positions

Michelle Baker, associate dean in Utah State University’s College of Science and professor in the department of biology and the USU Ecology Center, will serve as the college’s interim dean, beginning January 1, 2021. Dr. Baker joined the faculty at Utah State in 1999 and was promoted to full professor in 2011. Her research interests include aquatic ecosystem ecology, biogeochemistry, water quality, and hydrology.

Dr. Baker is a graduate of Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where she majored in biology. She holds a Ph.D. in biology from the University of New Mexico.

Valerie Weber has been appointed the next dean of the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. She will become dean on November 1. Dr. Weber is a professor of medicine and the Deborah J. Tuttle, M.D., and John P. Piper, M.D., senior vice dean for educational affairs at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia. Prior to joining Drexel in 2014, Dr. Weber served as chair of the department of clinical sciences, associate dean for clinical affairs, and professor of medicine at the Commonwealth School of Medicine in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Weber is a graduate of Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania. She earned a master’s degree in healthcare management at Harvard Univerity and a  medical doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania.

Wendi Heinzelman, who in 2016 was appointed the first woman dean of the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences at the University of Rochester in New York, has been reappointed to a second five-year term. She is a professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Professor Heinzelman joined the faculty at the University of Rochester in 2001 and was promoted to full professor in 2012. She is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.