Three Women Scholars Named to Endowed Faculty Positions

Melissa Bilal, director of the Armenian music program at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been selected as the inaugural Promise Chair in Armenian Music, Arts, and Culture. Dr. Bilal joined the University of California, Los Angeles two and half years ago, initially serving as associate director of the Armenian music program. The program is the only one of its kind outside the country of Armenia.

Dr. Bilal is a graduate of Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology. She holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago.

Gretchen Robinson has been named the Spangler Distinguished Professor of Early Child Literacy in the College of Education at North Carolina A&T State University. She most recently served as an associate professor and coordinator of the special education program at the University of North Carolina Pembroke.

Dr. Robinson graduated from the University of North Carolina Greensboro with a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology and audiology. She holds a master’s degree in communication sciences and disorders from Western Carolina University and a Ph.D. in special education from the University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Patricia LoRusso has been named the Amy and Joseph Perella Professor of Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine. She currently serves the Yale Cancer Center as associate center director of development therapeutics and leader of the Early Phase Clinical Research Team.

Dr. LoRusso received her bachelor’s degree from Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan, and her doctor of osteopathic medicine degree from Michigan State University.