Five Women Scholars Who Have Been Appointed Deans at Universities

Karen Kim has been named dean of Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, effective September 1. She has been serving as vice provost for research at the University of Chicago. She also was the Sara and Harold Lincoln Thompson Professor of Medicine, associate director of community outreach and engagement for the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center, and founder and director of the Center for Asian Health Equity at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Kim earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She holds a master’s degree in neurobiology/physiology from Northwestern University and her medical degree from Loyola University in Chicago.

Donna LaVoie was appointed dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Louis University, effective July 1. A professor of psychology, Dr. LaVoie also served as an associate dean in the college for 12 years. She has been on the university’s faculty for nearly 30 years.

Professor LaVoie is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in cognitive psychology from Claremont Graduate University in California.

Badia Ahad has been appointed as the next dean of Oxford College of Emory University, effective August 1. Dr. Ahad has been serving as vice provost for faculty affairs and professor of English at Loyola University Chicago. A scholar of African American literature and culture, Dr. Ahad is the author of Afro-Nostalgia: Feeling Good in Contemporary Black Culture (University of Illinois Press, 2021).

Dr. Ahad is a graduate of the University of Illinois. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Loretta Griffy will be the inaugural dean of University College at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. A professor of mathematics, she has served as director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, associate provost for student success, and associate vice president for student success strategic initiatives at the university.

Dr. Griffy is a graduate of Austin Peay State University, where she majored in mathematics. She holds a master’s degree in mathematics and statistics from the University of Memphis and a doctorate in higher education administration from Tennessee State University.

Patricia Timmons-Goodson was named dean of the School of Law at North Carolina Central University, effective July 1. She is a former associate justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. She was the fourth woman and the first African American woman to sit on the state’s highest court. She was first appointed to the bench as a district court judge at the age of 29.

Dean Timmons-Goodson received a bachelor’s degree and a juris doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She also holds a master’s degree from Duke University Law School.