Kalenda Eaton has been named president of the Western Literature Association. She currently teaches as a professor of African and African American studies at the University of Oklahoma, where she had a stint as interim chair of the women’s and gender studies program. A Fulbright Scholar, she studies African American literary and cultural history in the American west, women’s narratives, and Africana studies.
Dr. Eaton received bachelor’s degrees in English and Spanish from Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University.
Evelyn Fields has been elected chair of the South Carolina Education Deans’ Alliance, an organization dedicated to uniting deans from public and private colleges of education throughout the state to tackle statewide challenges in teacher preparation. Dr. Fields currently serves as a full professor of early childhood education and dean of the College of Education, Humanities, and Social Sciences at South Carolina State University, where she has worked for the past 25 years.
Dr. Fields holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in early childhood education from the University of South Carolina.
Alexandra Meliou has been elected vice chair of the Special Interest Group on Management of Data for the Association for Computing Machinery. A faculty member with the University of Massachusetts Amherst since 2012, she currently serves as a full professor and associate chair of faculty development in the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences. Her research centers on data and information management, particularly the challenges of dealing with imperfect data.
Dr. Meliou received her bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the National Technical University of Athens in Greece. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.