New Endowed Academic Appointments for Eight Women Scholars

Kelly Shue has been named the Amman Mineral Professor of Finance at the Yale School of Management. A scholar of corporate finance, behavioral economics, and labor economics, she holds secondary appointments at Yale Law School and the department of economics. Earlier in her career, she served on the faculty at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Dr. Shue is a two-time graduate of Harvard University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and her Ph.D. in economics.

Alexa Pearce has been named the Gershwind & Bennett Family Associate Vice Provost for Collections and Scholarly Communications for Penn Libraries. She comes to the University of Pennsylvania from the University of Michigan, where she served as the associate university librarian for research. Throughout her career, she has held teaching appointments at the University of Michigan School of Information, the Pratt Institute School of Information, and Long Island University’s Palmer School of Library and Information Science.

Pearce holds a master’s degree in history from New York University and a master’s degree in library and information science from Long Island University.

Sarah Kane has joined the faculty of the department of veterinary sciences at the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture, Life Sciences, and Natural Resources as the Riverbend Endowed Professor of Wildlife-Livestock Health. Her scholarly work focuses on chronic wasting disease, a neurological disorder that affects members of the deer family. She has also developed new technologies for infectious disease testing.

Dr. Kane received her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in biology from Texas State University. She holds a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from Colorado State University.

Shuchi Kapila has been named the Maxeiner/Baumann-Payne Endowed Chair in the department of English at Grinnell College in Iowa. A faculty member since 2002, she has served as chair of her department, director of the Center for Humanities, and assistant vice president and senior international officer for the Institute for Global Engagement. Her scholarship centers around British colonialism and nineteenth-century fiction and the literature of South Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa.

A native of India, Dr. Kapila holds a master’s degree from Delhi University and a Ph.D. in English from Cornell University.

Fengfeng Ke has been appointed as the Clark Leadership Chair at the University of Maryland College of Education. She comes to her new role from Florida State University, where she has taught in the departent of educational psychology and learning systems for the past 15 years. An expert in digital game-based learning, she leverages artificial intelligence, immersive learning, and mixed reality to develop technology to support individualized and collaborative learning processes.

Dr. Ke holds a bachelor’s degree in English and literature from Beijing International Studies University in China. She received her master’s degree in adult education from Northern Illinois University and her Ph.D. in instructional systems from Pennsylvania State University.

Susie Thompson has been named the inaugural Johansen-Thompson Endowed Professor in Potato Breeding at North Dakota State University. She first joined the university in 2001. A leading scientist in potato breeding, she developed the Dakota Russet, which is grown in several countries around the world.

Dr. Thompson is an alumna of North Dakota State University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in agronomy and her master’s degree in horticulture and forestry. She holds a Ph.D. in plant, soil, and entomological sciences from the University of Idaho.

Flaminia Catteruccia has been named the Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She currently serves as director of Harvard’s Ph.D. program in biological sciences in public health. Her laboratory works to develop new tools for mosquito and malaria control through examining the molecular and behavioral parameters that enable Anopheles mosquitoes to transmit malaria.

Dr. Catteruccia received her bachelor’s degree in organic chemistry from the University of Rome La Sapienza in Italy and her Ph.D. in molecular biology and genetics from Imperial College London.

Luna Lu has been named the Indiana ACPA Professor in Concrete Paving and Materials Science at Purdue University. A Purdue faculty member for the past decade, she currently serves as the Reilly Professor in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering and the School of Materials Engineering. She also serves as vice president of industry partnerships and founding director of the Center for Intelligent Infrastructure. She focuses her work on developing new technologies for energy harvesting and infrastructure sensing applications.

Dr. Lu received her bachelor’s degree in construction engineering and her master’s degree in business management from Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology in China. She holds a master’s degree in construction science and management and a doctorate in construction education from Clemson University in South Carolina.