Five Women Appointed to New Faculty Positions

Erica Armstrong Dunbar has been named professor in the department of African American studies at Emory University in Atlanta. Since 2017, she has served as the Charles and Mary Beard Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University in New Jersey. She is the author of A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City (Yale University Press, 2011) and Never Caught (37 Ink, 2018).

 Dr. Dunbar received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her master’s degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Allison Oakes has joined the faculty at Syracuse University in  New York as an assistant teaching professor of biology. She most recently served as a research scientist and postdoctoral fellow at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Dr. Oakes received her bachelor’s degree in biotechnology and Ph.D. in plant science and biotechnology from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Kimberly R. Haynie has been named assistant professor of human sciences at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff. She previously served as an adjunct professor for nutrition courses in the Virginia Community College System.

Dr. Haynie holds a bachelor’s degree in biology, as well as a master’s degree and doctorate in human nutrition, foods, and exercise from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Rasha Abdrabou has been named chair of the department of physician assistant sciences at Loma Linda University in California. Prior to joining the Loma Linda University faculty in 2018, she taught at various universities including California Baptist University, California State University Dominguez Hills, and West Coast University.

Dr. Abdrabou received her master’s degree and doctorate in public health from Loma Linda University.

Marylyn Ritchie has been named the inaugural vice dean of artificial intelligence and computing for the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She currently serves the university as the Edward Rose, M.D., and Elizabeth Kirk Rose, M.D. professor of genetics and director of the Institute for Biomedical Informatics and the Division of Informatics.

Dr. Ritchie is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh where she majored in biology. She holds a Ph.D. in human genetics from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.