Eight Women Scholars Who Have Been Given New Assignments in Higher Education

Elaine Howard Ecklund is the new director of the Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She holds the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences at Rice and is also a professor of sociology, graduate program director, and director of the university’s Religion and Public Life Program. She is the co-author of Varieties of Atheism in Science (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Professor Ecklund holds a bachelor’s degree in human development and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology, all from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

Janice Hume, the Carolyn McKenzie and Don E. Carter Chair for Excellence in Journalism at the University of Georgia, will be the new associate dean for academic affairs for the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, effective August 1. She joined Grady College in 2001 and became head of the department of journalism head in 2013.

Professor Hume holds a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a Ph.D., all in journalism and all from the University of Missouri.

Valerie Giddings, associate professor and chair of the department of family and consumer sciences in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at North Carolina A&T State University, has been given the added duties of interim senior vice provost.

Dr. Giddings holds a bachelor’s degree in home economics from Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clothing and textiles from Virginia Tech.

Lauren Capotosto was promoted to associate professor of education and granted tenure at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Dr. Capotosto has been a member of the Holy Cross faculty since 2014. Her research focuses on literacy development and instruction.

Dr. Capotosto earned a bachelor’s degree in English and political science from Villanova University in Pennsylvania. She earned a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with a specialization in literacy at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a master’s degree in language and literacy and a doctorate in human development and education at Harvard University.

Julia Hellwege, an assistant professor of political science at the University of South Dakota, was recently given the added duties of director of the university’s Government Research Bureau. She joined the faculty at the university in 2016.

Dr. Hellwege is a graduate of Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of New Mexico.

Rebecca Robichaux-Davis, a professor in the College of Education’s department of curriculum, instruction, and special education at Mississippi State University was given the added responsibilities as the director for the university’s next Quality Enhancement Plan.

Professor Robichaux-Davis is a graduate of Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana, where she majored in secondary mathematics education. She holds a master’s degree in mathematics education from Louisiana State University and a Ph.D. in mathematics education from Auburn University in Alabama.

Lakeyta Bonnette-Bailey, was named interim co-director of the Center for the Advancement of Students and Alumni at Georgia State University. She has been serving as the pre-Ph.D. faculty associate for the center. Dr. Bonnette-Bailey is an associate professor and the graduate director in the department of Africana studies. She is the author of Pulse of the People:  Rap Music and Black Political Attitudes (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015).

Dr. Bonnette-Bailey is a graduate of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where she majored in history and political science. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science from Ohio State University.

Tammy Barry has been named vice provost for graduate and professional education at Washington State University. She is a professor of psychology and has been serving as associate dean of the Graduate School.

Dr. Barry holds a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Alabama. She completed her pre-doctoral clinical internship in the department of psychiatry and behavioral neurobiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine.