A Group of Five Women Academics Who Are Taking on New Assignments at Major Universities

Chie Sakakibara is joining the Native American and Indigenous studies program at Syracuse University in New York for the spring 2022 semester as an associate professor of geography and the environment. She has been serving as an associate professor in the environmental studies program at Oberlin College in Ohio. Dr. Sakakibara is of Ryūkyūan descent, an indigenous group of southwestern Japan including the Okinawan archipelago. Dr. Sakakibara’s work explores the interplay of climate change and Indigenous resilience.

Dr. Sakakibara holds a bachelor’s degree in Native American studies, a master’s degree in art history, and a Ph.D. in geography, all from the University of Oklahoma.

Jen Ames Stuart, clinical professor of marketing and associate dean of graduate and executive programs in the Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has been named associate vice chancellor for university communications and chief communications officer. Dr. Stuart joined Belk College in 2013 as an assistant professor of marketing before being named director of executive education in 2016 and then associate dean in 2019.

Professor Stuart earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in information systems from the University of Pittsburgh. She holds a Ph.D. in business administration from Columbia University in New York City.

Lisa M. Anderson, an associate professor of women and gender studies and former deputy director in the School of Social Transformation, has been given the added duties of associate dean of academic affairs in the Graduate College at Arizona State University. Dr. Anderson has been teaching at the university since 2000. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on feminist theory, film, representation, and performance in women and gender studies.

Dr. Anderson earned a bachelor’s degree in politics from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She holds a master’s degree in theater from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and a doctorate in theater history and criticism from the University of Washington.

Radhika Nagpal was named professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and computer science at Princeton University in New Jersey. She joins the Princeton faculty this winter from Harvard University, where she has taught since 2004. Dr. Nagpal specializes in robotics.

Professor Nagpal earned a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a Ph.D., all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Nancy Freitag, vice provost for faculty affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago since 2018, has accepted the position of head of the department of pharmaceutical sciences in the College of Pharmacy at the university, effective March 1, 2022. She joined the faculty at the university in 2006 after teaching at Wayne State University in Detroit and the University of Washington.

Dr. Freitag holds a Ph.D. in biological chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles.