Six Women Scholars in New Faculty Roles at Universities

Sana Khan Hussaini is a new assistant professor of visual communication design in the School of Design at San Francisco State University. She was an associate creative director at the Ogilvy advertising firm and then a visiting teaching assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Hussaini holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from the National College of Arts in Pakistan. She holds a master of fine arts degree in design from the University of Notre Dame.

Desirée Plata was promoted to associate professor in civil and environmental engineering and granted tenure at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She focuses her research on novel material and industrial process design; carbon-based transformations; global carbon management and response strategies; resource management utilization and efficiency; and environmental sustainability.

Dr. Plata is a graduate of Union College in Schenectady, New York. She earned a Ph.D. in oceanography from the joint program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Kristen Granger is a new assistant professor of special education at the Peabody College of education and human development at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She was a research faculty member in the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Granger studies dynamic systems within early childhood and elementary school classrooms that influence the social, behavioral, and academic development of students with and at risk for high-incidence disabilities.

Dr. Granger earned a bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies from Pennsylvania State University in 2011. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in family and human development from Arizona State University.

Alexandra Navrotsky, a professor in the School of Molecular Sciences and the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, and the director of the Navrotsky Eyring Center for the Materials of the Universe at Arizona State University has been named a Regents Professor. She is one of the world’s leading scientists in the field of thermochemistry of minerals and related solid-state materials.

Professor Navrotsky holds bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago.

Sharon Jacobs is a new professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. Since 2014, she has taught at the University of Colorado Law School. Her research is focused on the administration of energy law and policy with a focus on the energy transition.

A former professional cellist, Professor Jacobs holds a bachelor’s degree in music from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a master’s degree in music from the Julliard School in New York City. She is a 2009 graduate of Harvard Law School.

Claire Jiménez is a new assistant professor of English language and literature and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. Her debut novel – What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez – is forthcoming from Grand Central Publishing.

Jiménez is a graduate of Colby Colby in Maine, where she was in the first cohort of Posse Scholars at the institution. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music. Later, she earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Vanderbilt University.