Five Women Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Endowed Chairs at Colleges and Universities

Susana Marcos, a professor of optics and of ophthalmology at the University of Rochester, has been appointed as the David R. Williams Director of the Center for Visual Science and as the Nicholas George Endowed Professor in Optics. Before coming to Rochester this past summer, Dr. Marcos was a professor at the Instituto de Óptica, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas in Madrid, Spain.

Dr. Marcos holds a bachelor’s degree in physics, a master’s degree in applied physics, and a Ph.D. in visual optics from the University of Salamanca in Spain.

Kristin Haglund, a professor of nursing and director of the Pediatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program at Marquette University in Milwaukee, has been named to the Rev. John P. Raynor, S.J. Endowed Chair. She is a community-engaged researcher specialized in qualitative and arts-based methods and interventions to promote positive youth development, healthy interpersonal relationships, violence prevention, and risk behavior reduction.

Dr. Haglund has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Marquette University, a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, and a Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Jan Lacina will be the inaugural holder of the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair for Early Childhood Education at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. Dr. Lacina is a professor and associate dean of graduate studies in the College of Education. Her teaching and research focus on literacy leadership, preparing globally-minded literacy teachers, and ways to use children’s literature in reading/writing instruction.

Dr. Lacina is a graduate of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She earned a master’s degree in education at Texas Woman’s University and a Ph.D. at the University of Kansas.

Leslie Lyons was named the inaugural Luther & Jenny Erickson Endowed Professor of Chemistry at Grinnell College in Iowa. Her research interests center around a class of materials called electrolytes which are ion-conducting solutions.

Dr. Lyons is a graduate of Colgate University in New York, where she majored in chemistry. She earned a Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Morgaen L. Donaldson was appointed to the Philip E. Austin Endowed Chair at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Donaldson is a professor of educational leadership and director of the University’s Center for Education Policy Analysis, Research, and Evaluation. She is the author of Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Teacher Evaluation: Understanding the Research and Theory (Routledge, 2020).

Professor Donaldson is a graduate of Princeton University in New Jersey, where she majored in history and American studies. She holds a master’s degree and an educational doctorate from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.