Four Women Join the Faculty of the College of Media, Arts, and Humanities at Simmons University in Boston

The Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts, and Humanities at Simmons University in Boston has hired six new faculty members for this fall. Four of the new hires are women.

Traci Griffith was named an associate professor of communications at the university. Professor Griffith comes to Simmons after serving 19 years on the faculty at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont. She is a former correspondent and national editor for the Associated Press.

Professor Griffith is a graduate of DePaul University in Chicago, where she majored in political science. She earned a master’s degree in journalism at Florida A&M University and a juris doctorate from the University of Notre Dame.

Kat Lombard-Cook is a new assistant professor of communications. She was a visiting assistant professor in communications at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts. Dr. Lombard-Cook is a designer and storyteller who focuses on the intersection of verbo-visual communication as a methodology for empowering marginalized voices.

Dr. Lombard-Cook holds a master of fine arts degree in communication design from the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. She earned a Ph.D. in design from the University of Edinburgh.

Tatiana M.F. Cruz is an assistant professor and director of Africana Studies in the new department of critical race, gender, and cultural studies at the university. She was an assistant professor of history at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Cruz will continue to serve as a Fellow for Faculty Diversity at the New England Board of Higher Education.

Dr. Cruz is a graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts, where she majored in history and American studies. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan.

Nicholl Montgomery joins Simmons University as a lecturer in children’s literature. She is completing a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Boston College with a dissertation on the work of writer Jacqueline Woodson.

Montgomery earned a bachelor’s degree at Boston College, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree in teaching from Northeastern University in Boston and a master of fine arts degree in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.