Universities Announce the Appointments of Eight Women to Dean Positions

Shannon Jimenez was named dean of the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Smith. She has been serving as senior associate dean at the college. Dr. Jimenez previously served as chair of clinical medicine and interim dean at Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Huntsville, Texas.

Dr. Jimenez is a graduate of Indiana University Northwest, where she majored in biology. She holds a doctorate in osteopathic medicine from the University of Des Moines in Iowa and recently added a master’s degree in health professions education from Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina.

Michelle D. Young will be the next dean of the School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. She has been serving as dean of the Loyola Marymount University School of Education in Los Angeles. Prior to becoming dean at LMU in 2020, Dr. Young was a professor and department chair at the University of Virginia.

Dr. Young completed her undergraduate degree at Southwestern University, a small liberal arts college 30 miles north of Austin, Texas. She earned a doctorate in education from the University of Texas at Austin.

Kimberly Bissell was appointed dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University, effective July 24. She has been serving as the associate dean for research in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama. An endowed professor in magazine journalism, Dr. Bissell’s research focuses on how media affects health outcomes, and she has a research program centered on sports communication.

Dr. Bissell earned a bachelor’s degree in photojournalism from the University of Florida. She holds a master’s degree in social science from Binghamton University in New York and a doctorate in mass communication from Syracuse University in New York.

Barbara Krauthamer has been appointed the next dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Emory University in Atlanta. She will take the helm of Emory University’s largest school on July 1. Currently, Dr. Krauthamer is dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She has served on the faculty there since 2008. Dr. Karauthamer is the author of several books including Black Slaves, Indian Masters: Slavery, Emancipation, and Citizenship in the Native American South (University of North Carolina Press, 2015).

Dr. Krauthamer holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, a master’s degree in history from Washington University in St. Louis, and a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University in New Jersey.

Jennifer Jahner, a professor of English in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, has been named dean of undergraduate students at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Jahner, who came to Caltech in 2012, has research interests that span the histories of rhetoric, law, and natural philosophy focusing on the European Middle Ages. She is the author of Literature and Law in the Era of Magna Carta (Oxford University Press, 2019).

Professor Jahner is a graduate of Western Washington University. She went on to complete a master’s degree at the University of Colorado Boulder and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Teresa Mastin, chair of the department of advertising and public relations in the College of Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University, will serve as interim dean of the College of Communication Arts and Science. From 2015 to 2018, she was director of diversity and inclusion at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.

Dr. Mastin holds a Ph.D. in mass media from Michigan State University.

Teri Browne is the new dean of the College of Social Work at the University of South Carolina. She has been interim dean of the college since June 2021. She joined the faculty at the university in 2008.

Browne received a bachelor’s degree and a master of social work degree from the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York System. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration.

Shelly Blunt was named dean of the Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education at the University of Southern Indiana. She has been interim dean since January. Earlier, Dr. Blunt had been serving as associate provost for academic affairs and professor of chemistry at the university. Her research is focused on directed metalations in organic syntheses, STEM education, academic advising, and student success and persistence.

Dr. Blunt is a graduate of Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, where she majored in chemistry. She holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Iowa.