Three Women Scholars Appointed to Endowed Professorships at Universities

Bonnie Joe has been named the inaugural Edward A. Sickles Professor in Breast Imaging in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She holds several roles at the medical school, including chief of breast imaging in the department of radiology and biomedical imaging and medical director of the Berkeley Outpatient Center. She is also a member of the university’s Executive Research Council. Her academic and medical expertise centers around breast and abdominal imaging, specifically breast, pelvic, and fetal MRIs. She is currently leading a multi-disciplinary research team in the search for MR detectable biomarkers of fetal lung maturity.

Dr. Joe holds a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and a medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Kristin Vekasi has been named the inaugural Mansfield Chair of Japanese and Indo-Pacific Affairs for the Mansfield Center at the University of Montana. She comes to her new role from the University of Maine, where she currently serves as an associate professor in the department of political science and the School of Policy and International Affairs and as director of the international affairs program. With a focus on Northeast Asia, she studies international political economy and the dynamics of political conflict, foreign direct investment, nationalism, and the geopolitics of supply chain.

Dr. Vekasi received her bachelor’s degree in political science from New College of Florida. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Ellen Lust has been named the John S. Knight Professor of International Studies and director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies at Cornell University. She holds secondary faculty appointments in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy and the department of government, as well as the department of political science at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. She is also the founding director of the Governance and Local Development Institute, which is jointly housed at Cornell and the University of Gothenberg. She has served as an advisor to the World Bank, the United Development Fund, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Dr. Lust holds a master’s degree in modern Middle East and North African studies and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan.