Colleges and Universities Announce the Appointments of Seven Women to New Faculty Roles

Clara Sousa-Silva has been appointed an assistant professor of physics at Bard College on Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. She will come to Bard College for the spring 2022 semester. She has been serving as a research scientist at the Center for Astrophysics operated by Harvard University and the Smithsonian Institution.

Dr. Souda-Silva holds a master’s degree in physics and astronomy from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She earned a Ph.D. in quantum chemistry from University College London.

LeConté Dill has joined the faculty of the department of African American and African studies at Michigan State University as an associate professor with tenure. She has served as the director of public health practice and clinical associate professor in the department of social and behavioral sciences in the School of Global Public Health at New York University. Additionally, since 2015, she has been a research associate for the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Dr. Dill is a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, where she majored in sociology and creative writing. She earned a master of public health degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and a doctor of public health degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jaqueline Lees, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research and the associate director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, as well as an associate department head and professor in the department of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was appointed associate dean of the School of Science at the university.

Professor Lees is a graduate of the University of York in England, where she majored in biochemistry. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of London.

Deidra Hodges was appointed associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Florida International University in Miami. Dr. Hodges is a former U.S. Navy officer and previously served on the faculty at the University of Texas at El Paso. She specializes in photovoltaics and solar energy research.

Dr. Hodged holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University in New York. She earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University of South Florida.

Beth A. Ferri, professor of inclusive education and disability studies at Syracuse University in New York, has been named associate dean for research in the School of Education. Dr. Ferri has coordinated the Ph.D. program in special education since 2006. Before joining the faculty at Syracuse in 2002, Dr. Ferri taught at Teachers College at Columbia University and Texas Woman’s University.

Dr. Ferri is a graduate of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She earned a master’s degree in special education at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in special education/learning disabilities at the University of Georgia.

Esther Schor, the Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor of American Jewish Studies and professor of English at Princeton University in New Jersey, has been appointed chair of the university’s Humanities Council. Her teaching and research encompass two major areas: British Romanticism; and literature, scripture, and religion. Professor Schor joined the faculty at Princeton in 1986.

Professor Schor earned a bachelor’s degree in English and music and a Ph.D. in English from Yale University.

Emily Masghati is a new assistant professor of history at the University of Northern Iowa. Her areas of specialty are African American history, the history of education, and modern U.S. history. 

A native of Augusta, Georgia, Dr. Masghati is a graduate of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.