Four Women Scholars Appointed to Endowed Faculty Positions

Jennifer Bennett Shinall has been named the inaugural Sara J. Finley Chair in Women, Law, and Policy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She has been a faculty member with the university for over a decade. Her research focuses on discrimination, particularly in the areas of gender and disability.

Dr. Shinall is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she double-majored in history and economics. She was the first graduate of Vanderbilt’s joint doctoral program in law and economics, earning both her juris doctorate and her Ph.D. from the Vanderbilt University Law School.

After nearly three years of service as a United States special envoy to combat antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt is returning to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, as a University Distinguished Professor. Prior to her appointment as a State Department ambassador in March 2022, she spent nearly three decades as an Emory faculty member. When she returns to the university, she will retain her former position as the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies in the department of religion.

Dr. Lipstadt is a graduate of the City University of New York. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Joyce Many has been named the Ferrer Endowed Professor of Multiple Literacies in the College of Education and Human Development at Georgia State University. A faculty member with the university since 1994, she specializes in middle and secondary education. Currently, her research focuses on how to ensure education programs are preparing teachers for urban school settings.

Dr. Many earned her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in elementary education from Northeast Louisiana State University. She holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Louisiana State University.

Leslie Lamberson has been named the Ben L. Fryrear Endowed Chair for Innovation and Excellence at Colorado School of Mines. For the past five years, she has served the institution as an associate professor of mechanical engineering. Earlier in her career, she was the P.C. Chou Assistant Professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, where she held appointments in mechanical engineering and materials science.

Dr. Lamberson is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned bachelor’s degrees in aerospace engineering and dance performance. She holds a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Ph.D. in aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.