Five Women Faculty Members Who Have Been Given New Roles in Higher Education

Shelley Liu is a new assistant professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research is concentrated on conflict and development in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing primarily on issues of state-building, violence, and political participation.

Dr. Liu is a graduate of Columbia University in New York City, where she majored in political science. She holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University.

Jazmine Wells is a new assistant professor in the department of writing, rhetoric, and digital studies at the University of Kentucky. Her research interests include cultural literacies, women’s rhetorics, maternal incarceration, and race.

Dr. Wells is a graduate of Colorado State Univerity-Pueblo, where she majored in English. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in rhetoric and writing from the University of Texas.

Melissa E. Sanchez, Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, was named director of the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies program at the university. She has been a core faculty member in the program since 2006. Her latest book is Queer Faith: Reading Promiscuity and Race in the Secular Love Tradition (New York Univerity Press, 2020).

Dr. Sanchez holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, all in English and all from the University of California, Irvine.

Alessandra Morello Gearhart was appointed a clinical assistant professor of internal medicine in the center for health sciences at Oklahoma State University. She was a sleep medicine fellow at the University of Louisville.

Dr. Gearhart earned her medical degree at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil.

Cindy Bethel, the Billie J. Ball Endowed Professor in the department of computer science and engineering at Mississippi State University, was appointed interim director of the university’s Social Science Research Center, effective January 4. Dr. Bethel also serves as an assistant vice president intern in the Office of Research and Economic Development.

Professor Bethel is a graduate of the University of South Florida, where she majored in computer science. She earned a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering at the same university.