Susan Ely has joined the Yale School of Medicine faculty as an associate professor of pathology and director of the autopsy service. She previously served as director of the fellowship training program and senior medical examiner at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York. Most recently, she taught at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine.
Dr. Ely holds a master of public health degree and a medical degree from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Allegra Lilly recently joined the faculty at Rice University in Houston as an associate professor of harp in the Shepherd School of Music. Since 2023, she has performed as the principal harp of the Houston Symphony. Before moving to Houston, she held same position with the St. Louis Symphony for 10 seasons. Earlier in her career, she taught at Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.
Professor Lilly holds a bachelor of music degree and master of music degree from The Juilliard School in New York City.
Michelle McCay was recently named interim assistant dean for academic affairs for the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has been a clinical assistant professor with the university since 2022. Earlier, she spent more than a decade as a faculty member in health sciences at DePaul University in Chicago. Throughout her career, she has focused her work on improving public health and maternal and child health outcomes.
Dr. McCay received her bachelor’s degree in health administration and planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She holds a master of public health degree and a doctor of public health degree both from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Haley Oliver has been selected to serve as interim vice provost for teaching and learning at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She has served as the university’s vice provost for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars since April 2024. A Purdue faculty member since 2010, she currently teaches as the 150th Anniversary Professor of food science and directs the USAID Feed the Future Food Safety Innovation Lab.
Dr. Oliver earned dual-bachelor’s degrees in molecular biology and microbiology from the University of Wyoming and a Ph.D. in food science from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Lindsay Waechter-Mead was recently named director of the Beef Quality Assurance program in Nebraska. Housed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the nationally coordinated, state-implemented program provides beef producers with science-based practices for raising cattle under optimum management and care. Dr. Waechter-Mead has been a member of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty since 2020.
Dr. Waechter-Mead received her bachelor’s degree in animal sciences from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and her doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Kansas State University. She later completed a master’s degree in veterinary biomedical and clinical sciences from her undergraduate alma mater.
Lyndsay Munro has received a secondary faculty appointment as a teaching professor in the department of biochemistry, molecular biology, & biotechnology at the University of Nevada, Reno. She has been a faculty member with the university’s department of chemistry for more than a decade. She is also involved with several AI-related initiatives and serves as a faculty liaison for academic standards through the provost’s office.
Dr. Munro holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of West Florida and a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Nevada, Reno.
Beatrix Manning has been named chief medical officer for the Animal Cancer Care and Research Center in Roanoke, one of three veterinary teaching hospitals for Virginia Tech. She will also serve as a clinical assistant professor of radiation oncology in the university’s Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. For the past eight years, she has been the lead veterinary radiation oncologist at the Comprehensive Cancer Care Center at VCA West Coast in Orange County, California.
Dr. Manning received her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences with an emphasis in microbiology from the University of Maryland, a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Virginia Tech, and a master’s degree in radiological health sciences from Colorado State University.
Lianne Kurina has been appointed to a three-year term as senior associate vice provost in the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education at Stanford University in California. A teaching professor in both medicine and epidemiology, she has been serving as the Bing Director of the Program in Human Biology for the past six years. As a chronic disease epidemiologist, she studies how social and psychological experiences impact human health.
Dr. Kurina holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in biology from Stanford University.
Lindsay DiStefano has been selected to serve as interim vice president for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship at the University of Connecticut. A faculty member since 2009, she has served as the associate vice president for research development for the past two years. She is a full professor of kinesiology with affiliate appointments in public health sciences and orthopedic surgery.
Dr. DiStefano received her bachelor’s degree in athletic training from Boston University. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in human movement science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Robin Decker is a new assistant professor of teaching in the department of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis. She recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin. As a scholar, she studies quantitative reasoning in ecology education and inclusive teaching methodologies in STEM, with a focus on improving student engagement, identity, and belonging, particularly for students from underrepresented groups.
Dr. Decker holds a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics and biology from Sonoma State University in California and a Ph.D. in population biology from the University of California, Davis.