J. Camille Hall has been named director of the School of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences in the McQueary College of Health and Human Services at Missouri State University in Springfield. She previously spent 18 years on the faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she was the first African American woman to earn the rank of professor in the College of Social Work. More recently, she was vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Dr. Hall received her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in social work from New Mexico State University. She holds a Ph.D. in social work from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Desirée Garcia has been promoted to full professor of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean studies at Dartmouth College, the Ivy League educational institution in Hanover, New Hampshire. She currently serves as chair of her department and holds an affiliate appointment with the department of film and media studies. A specialist in musical film and race and ethnicity in American culture, Dr. Garcia has published several books, most recently, The Dressing Room: Backstage Lives and American Film (Rutgers University Press, 2025).
Dr. Garcia holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in American studies from Boston University.
Tracey George has been appointed deputy provost at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. A Vanderbilt Law School faculty member for over two decades, she currently holds the Charles B. Cox III and Lucy D. Cox Family Chair in Law and Liberty. Her scholarship examines how institutional design influences actions and outcomes in state and federal judicial systems.
Dr. George earned bachelor’s degrees in political science and economics from Southern Methodist University in Texas. She holds a master’s degree in political science from Washington University in St. Louis and a juris doctorate from Stanford Law School in California.
Achala Vagal has been named chair of the department of radiology in the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, where she has taught for over 20 years. In addition to her new role, she will continue to serve as an associate dean and co-director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training. Her medical expertise centers on neuroradiology and stroke imaging.
Dr. Vagal earned her medical degree from Grant Medical College and Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals in Mumbai, India. She holds a master’s degree in clinical and translational research from the University of Cincinnati.
Elizabeth Chen has been named the inaugural program director for the online master of health administration degree program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She will also serve as a professor of practice in the university’s School of Public Health and Health Sciences. Most recently, she was secretary for the executive officer of elder affairs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Dr. Chen holds a bachelor’s degree in organizational behavior from Yale University, an MBA in international management from the University of Pennsylvania, a master of public health degree in health policy from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in gerontology from the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Viveka Vadyvaloo has been promoted from associate director to director of the Paul G. Allen School for Global Health at Washington State University. She joined the school in 2009 and became its first tenure-track faculty member in 2010. Her research focuses on the transmission biology of Yersinia pestis, the bacterial agent of bubonic plague.
Dr. Vadyvaloo received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
Jimin Nam has joined the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an assistant professor of marketing in the Sloan School of Management. Prior to MIT, she was a faculty member in the marketing and logistics department at Ohio State University. In her research, she investigates what captures, directs, and exploits consumer attention.
Dr. Nam earned bachelor’s degrees in economics and mathematics from Arizona State University and her Ph.D. from Harvard Business School.