Kelly Lytle Hernández, the Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been elected vice president of the Society of American Historians. An expert on race, immigration, and mass incarceration, Dr. Lytle Hernández is co-director of Mapping Deportations, a project examining the relationship between race and U.S. immigration enforcement, and director of Million Dollar Hoods, a research initiative at UCLA’s Bunch Center for African American Studies. She is the author of several books, including her forthcoming monograph Racist by Design: Two Centuries of U.S. Immigration Control (W. W. Norton & Company, 2026).
Dr. Lytle Hernández earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, San Diego and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Nichole Price has been named the inaugural director of Colby College’s Center for Resilience and Economic Impact in Port Clyde, Maine. Dr. Price, a professor of environmental studies at Colby, has directed the Center for Seafood Solutions at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, since 2015. As a marine ecologist, she specializes in ocean acidification, seaweeds, and carbon cycling, and studies how global change impacts bottom-dwelling species.
Dr. Price is a graduate of Connecticut College, where she double-majored in biology and mathematics. She holds a master’s degree in statistics and applied probability and a Ph.D. in ecology, evolution, and marine biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Ivonne Miranda was promoted to associate professor of education and awarded tenure at Cedar Crest College, a women’s liberal arts educational institution in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She has taught at the college for the past seven years and currently serves as a graduate program director. Dr. Miranda’s scholarship centers on STEM education, teacher preparation, and equity.
A graduate of Hostos Community College in the Bronx, New York, Dr. Miranda received her bachelor’s degree from Herbert H. Lehman College in New York City and her master’s and doctoral degrees from Walden University.
Hui “Helen” Li was named a Distinguished Research Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering. A leading expert in power electronics for grid and transportation electrification, Dr. Li focuses her work on developing innovative power conversion technologies based on wide-bandgap devices and advanced control to achieve high-performance operation and cost reduction. She has led power electronics research at FSU’s Center for Advanced Power Systems for over two decades.
Dr. Li holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Huazhong University of Science & Technology in China and a Ph.D. in the same discipline from the University of Tennessee.
Danbi Um has joined the University of Cincinnati faculty as an assistant professor of violin in the College-Conservatory of Music. An artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City, Um as performed with numerous orchestras from around the world. She has released two studio albums: Much Ado: Romantic Violin Masterworks and Poème Mystique.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, Um began studying the violin when she was 3 years old. At age 10, she was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she earned her bachelor’s degree. She also holds an artist diploma from Indiana University.