Four Women Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Endowed Professorships

Amy Weaver was named the inaugural Patricia McGovern Sweeney Professor in Nursing in the Centofanti School of Nursing at Youngstown State University in Ohio. Dr. Weaver joined the faculty at Youngstown State Univerity in 2003. She teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her research is related to the community and the elderly.

Dr. Weaver is a graduate of West Liberty University in West Virginia. She holds a master’s degree in nursing from Youngstown State University and a Ph.D. in nursing from Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

Cynthia Richards is the first holder of the newly established Richard P. Veler Endowed Chair in English at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. Her research interests include 18th-century literature, women and gender studies, Mary Wollstonecraft, and pedagogy.

Professor Richards is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She earned a Ph.D. at New York University.

Renee Cunningham-Williams is the inaugural Watts Endowed Professor of Social Work at Arizona State University. She has been serving on faculty in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. She is an authority in the study of problem gambling, substance use and abuse, and mental and behavioral health, particularly among African American youth and emerging adults.

Profesor Cunningham-Williams holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Howard University in Washington, D.C.. She holds a master of social work degree and a Ph.D. in social work from Washington University.

Onnolee Nordstrom has been selected as the inaugural holder of the President Jim Ozbun Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship in the College of Business at North Dakota State University. She has been a faculty member at NDSU since 2016. Dr. Norstrom studies questions relating to entrepreneurial ecosystems, non-economic outcomes of family businesses, and community development.

Dr. Nordstrom worked in the agriculture industry for a number of years before joining the academic world. She holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a Ph.D.  in strategic management and organization from the University of Alberta.