New Faculty Positions for Five Women Scholars

Elsa Olivetti has been named director of the decarbonizing energy and industry mission within The Climate Project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been a faculty member with MIT for the past 10 years, currently serving as the Jerry McAfee Professor in Engineering and associate dean of engineering.

Dr. Olivetti holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering science from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mabel O. Wilson has been appointed chair of the African American and African diaspora studies department at Columbia University. Since 2007, she has taught courses on the critical studies of architecture at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. She currently holds the title of Nancy and George Rupp Professor of Architecture and directs the graduate school’s Global Africa Lab.

Dr. Wilson holds a master’s degree in architecture from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in American studies from New York University.

Michele Saracino has been named associate dean of the Kakos School of Arts and Sciences at Manhattan College in Riverdale, New York. She has served as a professor of religious studies at the college for the past 22 years. During her tenure with the college, she had a four-year stint as chair of the department of religious studies. She has authored several books within the academic field of religion, most recently Christian Anthropology: An Introduction to the Human Person (Paulist Press, 2025).

Dr. Saracino completed her undergraduate education at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She received her master’s degree from Yale Divinity School and Ph.D. from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Kristy Swift has joined the faculty at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as an assistant professor of music studies. For the past four years, she has served the university as an associate professor of musicology education. In her new role, she will oversee the bachelor’s degree program in music.

Dr. Swift is a graduate of the University of Florida, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in music education and master of music degree in organ. She holds a doctor of musical arts degree in organ and a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Cincinnati.

Cara Shaffer has been named a professor in the University of Colorado Law School. She previously served as the founding director of the legal writing center at South Texas College of Law Houston. Earlier in her career, she spent four years coaching the University of Texas Undergraduate Mock Trial team.

Shaffer received her juris doctorate from the University of Texas School of Law.