Chanita Hughes-Halbert has been named a Distinguished Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences in the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Dr. Hughes-Halbert, the Dr. Arthur and Priscilla Ulene Chair in Women’s Cancer, serves in several leadership roles at the university, including vice chair for research in preventative medicine and associate director for cancer equity in the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is known for her work in cancer prevention and minority health research.
Dr. Hughes-Halbert is a summa cum laude graduate of Hampton University in Virginia. She earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
Tanzeem Choudhury was named chief of health innovation for Cornell Tech, the New York City-based graduate and research campus of Cornell University. Dr. Choudhury, the Roger and Joelle Burnell Professor in Integrated Health and Technology, has served as director of the Health Tech Hub at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute for the past five years. She also directs the People-Aware Computing group, which creates wearables and multi-model AI systems to better measure and intervene on health behaviors and symptoms.
Dr. Choudhury is a graduate of the University of Rochester in New York, where she majored in electrical engineering. She earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. from the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kathryn D. Kloepper has been named chief of staff at Mercer University in Georgia. A faculty member since 2009, she currently serves as a professor of chemistry and vice provost for engaged learning. Dr. Kloepper, an analytical chemist, currently focuses her work on chemical education research and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Alongside student researchers, she evaluates approaches for engagement and learning in chemistry courses, including courses for non-majors.
A graduate of the University of Dallas in Texas, Dr. Kloepper earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.
Amanda Geidel has been promoted to assistant dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences at Concordia University Nebraska. She first joined the faculty in 1998 and currently serves as a professor of education and director of special education. As assistant dean, she will focus on developing courses, recruiting students, advising faculty, and overseeing strategic initiatives for the education department.
Dr. Geidel holds a bachelor’s degree from Concordia University Nebraska, a master’s degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a doctorate from Northcentral University.
Rita M. Ryan was appointed chair of the department of pediatrics in the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in Huntington, West Virginia. Currently, Dr. Ryan is a professor of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and the senior attending neonatologist at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. Earlier in her career, she was chair of pediatrics and pediatrician-in-chief at the Medical University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on neonatal lung biology.
Dr. Ryan is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she majored in mathematical sciences. She earned her medical degree and completed a pediatric residency at the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center, followed by a neonatal-perinatal medicine fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Dora Malech was named senior advisor to the provost for the arts at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she serves as the Elliott Coleman Professor and chair of writing seminars. In her current role, she oversees the university’s undergraduate and graduate creative writing programs. Professor Malech is the author of five poetry collections, including Trying x Trying (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2025).
Professor Malech earned her bachelor of fine arts degree from Yale University and her master of fine arts degree in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.