Five Women Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Endowed Professorships

Maureen Kohi was appointed the Ernest H. Wood Distinguished Professor and chair of the department of radiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, effective December 31, 2020. She has served on the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco since 2012.

Dr. Kohi is a graduate of Stanford University and the New York Medical College. She completed her diagnostic radiology residency at the University of California, San Francisco.

Sheara Williams Jennings was appointed to the Humana Endowed Chair in Social Determinants of Health at the University of Houston. Dr. Jennings, who joined the faculty at the university in 2004, focuses her research on the family structure of African- Americans and Hispanic Americans and its effect on children’s well-being, education, health, and development.

Professor Jennings is a graduate of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she majored in rehabilitation psychology. She holds a master of social work degree from Louisiana State University and a Ph.D. in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Karla Klein Murdock, professor of cognitive and behavioral science at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, has been named the next Roger Mudd Professor of Ethics and director of the university’s Roger Mudd Center for Ethics. She will assume her new role on July 1. 2021.

Professor Murdock joined the faculty at the university in 2005. She is a graduate of Indiana University, where she majored in psychology. Dr. Murdock holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Georgia.

Lauren Barron, the director of the medical humanities program at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, has been named the inaugural holder of The Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., Selma DeBakey and Lois DeBakey Chair for Medical Humanities in the university’s College of Arts and Science.

Dr. Barron is a graduate of Baylor University, where she majored in psychology. She earned her medical degree at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.

Andrea Westby is the inaugural holder of the Josie Robinson Johnson Endowed Chair in Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Dr. Westby joined the faculty of the department of family medicine and community health in 2017.

Dr. Westby is a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington, where she majored in biology. She earned her medical degree at the University of Minnesota.