Jazmin Aguilar-Romero has joined the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles as an assistant teaching professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry. She most recently served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Sustainable Polymers at the University of Minnesota, where she focused on developing non-isocyanate based polyurethanes. In addition to her scientific research, she studies evidence-based pedagogy and inclusive teaching practices.
Dr. Aguilar-Romero received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry and chemical biology from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Julie Niederhoff has been appointed chair of the marketing department in the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University in New York. A faculty member since 2007, she currently serves as co-director of the H.H. Franklin Center for Supply Chain Management and the Harry Salzberg Memorial Program. Her scholarship focuses on the role of individual level human bias in making decisions in the supply chain and how this impacts the system’s performance in both for-profit and humanitarian supply chains.
Dr. Niederhoff holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in operations management from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Ariel Chan has joined the faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz as an assistant professor of languages and applied linguistics. Before her new appointment, she was a Provostial Fellow and lecturer in linguistics at Stanford University. Working at the intersection of psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and neuroscience, she studies how bilinguals’ cultural identity and language experiences affect how they understand and use language, as well as how they manage attention and mental flexibility.
Dr. Chan received her Ph.D. in East Asian linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Oaklee Rogers has been named associate dean of the College of Health Sciences at Boise State University in Idaho. She comes to her new position from Northern Arizona University, where she was associate dean for the College of Health and Human Services and chair of the occupational therapy program. Her research interests focus on designing and implementing occupational therapy programs for individuals with substance use disorders and best practices for clinical education.
Dr. Rogers holds a master’s degree in from Belmont University in Nashville. She earned a doctorate in occupational therapy from Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions in Provo, Utah, and a Ph.D. in occupational therapy from Nova Southeastern University in Florida.
Zoey Yiyuan Zhou has joined the faculty at Columbia University as an assistant professor in the Columbia Climate School. For the past two years, she has taught as an assistant professor of sustainable and green finance at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology School of Academy and Interdisciplinary Studies in China. Her research connects finance, climate science, and biodiversity, focusing on how financial systems — particularly corporate finance and banking — can drive nature-positive, climate-resilient, and equitable outcomes.
Dr. Zhou received her master’s degree in earth and environmental engineering from Columbia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and her Ph.D. in finance from the University of Hong Kong.
Beth Altringer Eagle has been named the inaugural Distinguished Professor in Design and director of the Design Initiative at Dartmouth College. She comes to Dartmouth from Brown University, where she was a professor of practice in design engineering and founding director of its joint master’s degree in design engineering program with the Rhode Island School of Design. As a scholar, she explores collaborative intelligence and the integration of data and design to enhance human experience.
Dr. Eagle is a graduate of Arizona State University, where she majored in psychology and economics. She holds a master’s degree in architecture from the University of Cape Town in South Africa and a Ph.D. in the psychology of design from the University of Cambridge in England.
Melinda Anderson has been appointed assistant dean for Purdue Veterinary Technology Medicine. She currently teaches as a clinical associate professor of basic medical sciences in the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine. Earlier in her career, she was the chief instructional technologist in the university’s Veterinary Hospital.
Dr. Anderson holds a bachelor’s degree in animal sciences and a doctor of pharmacy degree from Purdue University.
Elizabeth Cieniewicz has been granted tenure and promoted to associate professor of plant virology at Clemson University in South Carolina. As a plant pathologist, her work focuses on plant virus ecology and virus-vector interactions. She currently serves as director of the Clemson Clean Plant Center, where she oversees the supply of virus-indexed peach budwood for the eastern United States.
Dr. Cieniewicz received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. in plant pathology from Cornell University.
Melinda Hall has been named founding director of the newly established School of Interdisciplinary Studies in the College of Community Innovation and Education at the University of Central Florida. A full professor of philosophy, her research specialities include the philosophy of disability, continental philosophy, and bioethics.
Dr. Hall earned dual-bachelor’s degrees in political science and philosophy from American University. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Ann Sojka has been appointed academic director of the Grau Center for Professional Selling in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati. As an assistant professor-educator of marketing, she teaches a wide variety of marketing and sales courses. Outside of academia, she has over a decade of professional sales and retail experience.
Professor Sojka holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University and a master’s degree in marketing from the University of Cincinnati.
Elsa Ludwig has joined the Virginia Tech faculty as a clinical assistant professor of equine surgery in the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center. She brings extensive experience in soft tissue surgery to her new role. Additionally, her background includes work in emergency and critical care, cutaneous tumor treatments, and advanced dental and sinus procedures.
Dr. Ludwig holds a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s degree in biomedical and veterinary sciences from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in comparative biomedical science from North Carolina State University.