Four Women Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Endowed Professorships

Delores Albarracín will be the Alexandra Heyman Nash University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with joint appointments in the Annenberg School for Communication and the department of family and community health in the School of Nursing. She was a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and earlier served as the Martin Fishbein Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania from 2012 to 2014. Professor Albarracin was recently elected president of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

A native of Argentina, Dr. Albarracin holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the Universidad Católica de La Plata and a bachelor’s degree in letters from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata. She holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Julie Dash, distinguished professor of documentary filmmaking in the department of art & visual culture at Spelman College in Atlanta, was named a Diana King Endowed Professor in Film and Filmmaking, Television, and Related Media. She joined the college’s faculty in 2017.  Professor Dash’s 1991 independent film Daughters of the Dust, won the Sundance Film Festival’s Excellence in Cinematography Award.

Professor Dash is a graduate of City College of New York, where she majored in film production. She holds a master of fine arts degree in television production from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Suzanne O’Connell, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, was named to the Harold T. Stearns Professorship of Earth Sciences. Her research is focused on the Antarctic paleoclimate using marine sediment cores from the International Ocean Discovery Program.

Dr. O’Connell is a graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio. She earned a master’s degree at the University at Albany of the State University of New York System and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York City.

Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, associate professor and assistant dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the department of public health and community medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, was appointed the Julia A. Okoro Professor in Black Maternal Health. She was an assistant professor in public health at Montclair State University in New Jersey before coming to Tufts.

Dr. Amutah-Onukagha holds bachelor’s degrees in public health and Africana studies from Rutgers University in New Jersey. She earned a master of public health degree from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in maternal and child health from the University of Maryland School of Public Health.