Five Women Faculty Members Who Are Taking on New Duties

Renee Irvin, professor in the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon, is the new vice provost for academic affairs at the university. Professor Irvin came to the University of Oregon in 2001 after serving on the faculty at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Her research interests include the economics of nonprofit organizations and philanthropy.

Dr. Irvin earned her bachelor’s degree in German from the University of Oregon. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from the University of Washington.

Andrea Case has been appointed chair of the department of plant biology in the College of Natural Science at Michigan State University. Dr. Case is an evolutionary ecologist who specializes in studying floral polymorphism in plant populations. She joined the university’s faculty in January after serving as a professor in the biological sciences department at Kent State University in Ohio. She was on the faculty at Kent State for 17 years.

Professor Case is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she majored in biology. She holds a Ph.D. in botany and plant biology from the University of Toronto.

Julia Bullock, professor of Japanese language and literature in the College of Arts and Sciences at Emory University in Atlanta, has been appointed the new director of the Halle Institute for Global Research in the university’s Office of Global Strategy and Initiatives. Earlier, she served as chair of Emory’s department of Russian and East Asian languages and cultures. Dr. Bullock is the author of Coeds Ruining the Nation: Women, Education, and Social Change in Postwar Japanese Media (University of Michigan Press, 2019).

Dr. Bullock received a master’s degree in Asian studies from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Japanese language and literature from Stanford University.

Aisha Ali-Gombe, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at Louisiana State University, was named the director of the university’s new Cybersecurity Clinic.

Dr. Ali-Gombe is a graduate of the University of Abuja in Nigeria, where she majored in computer science. She holds an MBA from Bayero University in Kano, Nigeria, and a master’s degree in computer science and a Ph.D. in engineering and applied science from the University of New Orleans.

Margaret Meserve, the Glynn Family Collegiate Professor of History and co-director of the Glynn Family Honors Program at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, has been appointed vice president and associate provost for academic space and support. In this role, Dr. Meserve will work with the University Architect’s office to help manage major new projects for academic units, including new buildings, renovations, and moves. She taught at Princeton University for two years before joining the Notre Dame faculty in 2003. Dr. Meserve is the author of Papal Bull: Print, Politics, and Propaganda in Renaissance Rome (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021).

Dr. Meserve received her bachelor’s degree in classics from Harvard University. She earned master’s and doctoral degrees in Renaissance history from the University of London.