Five Women Faculty Members Taking on New Assignments at Major Universities

Jennifer Wilcox has been named the Presidential Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on innovative ways to avoid new carbon dioxide emissions from entering the air as well as the removal of old emissions. Dr. Wilcox was the James H. Manning Chaired Professor of Chemical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

Dr. Wilcox is a graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she majored in mathematics. She holds a master’s degree in physical chemistry and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Arizona.

La Fleur Small was appointed interim vice provost for faculty affairs at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Small is a professor of sociology. She joined the Wright State faculty in 2004. Dr. Small has served as chair of the department of sociology and anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts and as director of the master’s degree program in applied behavioral sciences.

Dr. Small holds a Ph.D. in medical sociology and epidemiology from the University of Miami in Florida.

Swati Piparsania is a new clinical assistant professor in the industrial design program at Arizona State University. She was serving as a design teaching fellow at Pratt Institute in New York, where she taught experimental and critical design.

A native of India, Piparsania completed her undergraduate studies at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore. She holds a master of fine arts degree in 3D design from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Kate Walsh was appointed associate professor of psychology and women’s and gender studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was an assistant professor at Yeshiva University in New York.

Dr. Walsh is a graduate of Boston University. She earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Abigail S. Newsome, an associate professor of biology at Mississippi Valley State University, was given the added duties as vice president for academic affairs. She joined the faculty at the university in 1977 and was promoted to associate professor in 2015.

Dr. Newsome is a graduate of Mississippi Valley State University, where she majored in biology. She holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Southern Mississippi.