Eight Women Taking on New Faculty Positions at Colleges and Universities

Chloe Irla has been named assistant dean of faculty development and director of the honors program at McDaniel College in Maryland. She has taught digital art and design at the college for the past eight years. She has previously served as chair of the art department and special advisor to the provost on well-being initiatives.

Irla is a summa cum laude graduate of McDaniel College, where she majored in studio art with a minor in art history. She holds a master of fine arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Paula Welander has been appointed associate vice provost for graduate education and postdoctoral affairs at Stanford University in California. She has been with the university for over a decade, teaching as an associate professor of environmental earth system science.

Dr. Welander is a graduate of Occidental College in Los Angeles, where she majored in kinesiology. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Bettina Drake has been named the inaugural faculty director of the St. Louis Confluence Collaborative for Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Practice at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She currently serves as a professor of surgery in public health sciences at the Washington University School of Medicine and associate director of community outreach and engagement at the Siteman Cancer Center.

Dr. Drake holds a master of public health degree in epidemiology from the University of North Texas Health Science Center and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of South Carolina.

Caitlyn Butler has been named associate dean for research and graduate affairs for the College of Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and graduate program director of civil and environmental engineering.

Dr. Butler is a graduate of Smith College, a women’s college in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she majored in engineering science. She holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Melinda Morgan has been named a Regents Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of New Mexico. As a professor of geography and environmental studies, her research focuses on natural resource and environmental issues in the American West. She is the author of The End of Sustainability: Resilience and the Future of Environmental Governance in the Anthropocene (University Press of Kansas, 2017).

Professor Morgan holds a bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in philosophy from the University of Oregon, a master’s degree in community counseling from the University of Wyoming, and a juris doctorate from the University of Idaho.

Arlette Ngoubene Atioky has been promoted to associate professor of psychology with tenure at Goucher College in Maryland. She currently teaches courses in international psychology, immigration psychology, and psychological disorders. Earlier in her career, she served on the faculty at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she taught courses on multicultural competence and mental health practice training.

Dr. Ngoubene Atioky completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland. She holds a master of education degree and Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Kandi Hill-Clarke has been appointed senior vice provost for faculty affairs and leadership development at the University of Memphis in Tennessee. She currently holds the title of McRae Endowed Professor of School-based Clinical Practice. Previously, she served as dean of the College of Education from 2017 to 2023.

Dr. Hill-Clarke is a graduate of LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, where she majored in elementary education. She holds a master’s degree in reading education and doctorate in instruction and curriculum leadership from the University of Memphis.

Christine Launius has been named associate dean for student success in the College of Arts and Sciences at Kansas State University. She has been with the university for the past six years, currently serving as an associate professor and interim head of the department of social transformation studies.

Dr. Launius holds a master’s degree in English from Illinois State University, a master’s degree in women’s studies from the University of Cincinnati, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.