Six Women Who Have Been Named to Endowed University Positions

Sharon Meyer is the University of Louisiana System Foundation and Willis-Knighton Health System Professor of Toxicology at the University of Louisiana-Monroe. She joined the faculty in 2000 and focuses her research on echinacea as a dietary supplement to boost the production of white blood cells when bone marrow has been compromised, such as during chemotherapy.

Professor Meyer holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a master’s degree in biochemistry from Iowa State University. She earned a Ph.D. in physiology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Ruth O’Regan was appointed the Charles Ayrault Dewey Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester. Dr. O’Regan’s research centers on developing novel therapeutic approaches for treatment-resistant breast cancers, with a focus on triple-negative and endocrine-resistant metastatic breast cancers.

Dr. O’Regan earned her medical degree from University College, Dublin in Ireland. She completed her internal medicine residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin and her hematology/oncology fellowship at Northwestern University.

Karen Winey was named the Harold Pender Professor of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Winey joined the faculty at the Univerity of Pennsylvania in 1992.

Professor Winey is a graduate of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where she majored in materials science and engineering. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in polymer science and engineering from the University of Massachusetts.

Leela Gandhi was named the inaugural Shauna McKee Stark ’76 P ’10 Director of the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She is a professor of humanities and English at the university. Dr. Gandhi’s research focuses on transnational literatures, postcolonial theory and ethics, and the intellectual history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Dr. Gandhi holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delhi in India. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. at Oxford University in England.

Maya Steinitz was named the Charles E. Floete Professor at the University of Iowa College of Law. Her research focuses on the intersection of civil litigation and corporate law, public and business international law, transnational dispute resolution, and the global legal profession.

She holds a bachelor’s degree from Hebrew University in Israel and a master’s degree in law and a juris doctorate from New York University.

Sherra St Clair is the new McMurry Chair of Mental Health at the University of Wyoming’s Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing. She entered the nursing field after 20 years as a medical illustrator.

Dr. St. Clair holds bachelor’s degrees in humanities and fine arts and a doctor of nursing practice degree from the University of Wyoming. She also earned a master of fine arts degree in medical and biological illustration at the University of Michigan.