Six Women Scholars Selected for Endowed Faculty Appointments at Universities

Julia Ernst has been named the Floyd B. Sperry Professor in the School of Law at the University of North Dakota. She has been a faculty member with the university for over a decade, and previously spent four years as associate dean of the School of Law. Her scholarship focuses on constitutional law, professional foundations, legislation, international human rights, and gender and law.

Professor Ernest is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in political science. She received a juris doctorate and master’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan, as well as a master of laws degree from Georgetown University.

Amanda Thompson has been named to the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She currently serves as a professor of anthropology and a professor of nutrition. She has conducted extensive research on how early life nutrition and environmental exposures shape long-term health and obesity risk.

Dr. Thompson is a summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she majored in anthropology. She holds a master of public health degree in public nutrition and global health and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Erin Gibson has been appointed as the Pamela Cole Career Development Chair of Small Animal Minimally Invasive Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been with the university for the past two years, serving as an assistant professor in the department of clinical sciences and advanced medicine. Previously, she was as a surgery fellow in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Gibson earned her bachelor’s degree in animal science from California Polytechnic University and her doctor of veterinary medicine degree from the University of California, Davis.

Jennifer McIntosh has been named the inaugural Dr. Thomas Meixner Endowed Professor in Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Arizona. She currently serves as a University Distinguished Scholar and associate head of the hydrology and atmospheric sciences department. She holds a joint appointment as a professor of geology. In addition to her roles at the University of Arizona, she is an adjunct professor with the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.

Dr. McIntosh is a graduate of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where she double-majored in geology and chemistry. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in geology from the University of Michigan.

Britt Tevis has been named an assistant professor of history and the Phyllis Backer Professor of Jewish Studies at Syracuse University in New York. Most recently, she served as the Rene Plessner Postdoctoral Fellow in Antisemitism and Holocaust Studies at the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies at Columbia University.

Dr. Tevis is a graduate of the University of Florida, where she double-majored in Jewish studies and political science. She holds a juris doctorate, as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Amanda Ashley has been appointed as the Dr. Thomas and Marilyn Beck Endowed Professor in the Arts at Boise State University in Idaho. As a professor of urban studies and community studies, she studies arts economic and community development policy and practice. She also serves as director of the university’s School of the Arts.

Dr. Ashley holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and international studies from Northwestern University in Illinois, a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania.