Five Women Scholars Selected to Lead Professional Organizations in Their Fields

Yasmeen Shorish, professor and associate dean for research and scholarly communications at James Madison University Libraries, is the incoming vice president/president-elect for the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). She will begin her one-year term in July, followed by a one-year term as president in 2027.

In her scholarly work, Shorish focuses on changing models in scholarly communication, data privacy and ethics, responsible AI, and issues related to representation within the profession. At JMU, she was recently named a special advisor to the provost on artificial intelligence.

Shorish is a summa cum laude graduate of Northeastern Illinois University, where she majored in biology. She holds a master of library and information science degree from the University of Illinois.

Elena Carbone, professor of nutrition at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was named vice president/president-elect of the International Health Literacy Association (IHLA). She will serve as vice president for two years, followed by three years as president.

In addition to teaching in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Dr. Carbone serves as associate dean for curriculum and academic oversight in the university’s Commonwealth Honors College. Working directly in community settings, she examines how low-income, culturally diverse populations with limited literacy skills attend to, process, and use health information.

A graduate of the University of New Hampshire, Dr. Carbone holds a master’s degree from Boston University and a doctorate in public health from the University of North Carolina.

Shelley Lusetti, professor and head of the department of chemistry and biochemistry at New Mexico State University and principal investigator of the New Mexico IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (NM-INBRE), was elected vice president of the National Association of IDeA Principal Investigators (NAIPI). Dr. Lusetti’s election is a 12-year commitment; she will serve four years as vice president, four years as president, and four years as past president.

As principal investigator of NM-INBRE, Dr. Lusetti focuses on building access to infrastructure at New Mexico universities, advancing faculty’s research programs, and training students. In her new role with NAPIA, she will facilitate communication, foster collaboration, develop best practices, and promote growth of biomedical research among other National Institutes of Health-funded IDeA programs across 23 states and Puerto Rico.

Dr. Lusetti holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Through her research, she aims to define the cellular processes underlying chromosomal maintenance by studying the enzymes and regulatory mechanisms that control it.

Oona Hathaway, the Gerald C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, is the new president of the American Society of International Law.

At Yale Law School, Professor Hathaway serves as director of the Center for Global Legal Challenges. She is also affiliated with Yale’s department of political science and the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs. Professor Hathaway’s current research focuses on the future of the global legal order, accountability for the Russia-Ukraine war, the possibilities for reform at the United Nations, reviving international humanitarian law, and sovereignty in cyber operations. She is the co-author of The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World (Simon & Schuster, 2017).

Professor Hathaway is a summa cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in government. She holds a juris doctorate from Yale Law School.

Keisha Blain, professor of history and Africana studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, was named president of the Center for Engaged Scholarship.

As a historian of the twentieth-century United States, Dr. Blain focuses her research on African American history, the modern African diaspora, and women’s gender and studies. She has edited five scholarly volumes and the author of three acclaimed books, including her most recent publication, Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights (W.W. Norton, 2025). A Brown faculty member since 2022, Dr. Blain is affiliated with the university’s American studies program and the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies.

Dr. Blain is a magna cum laude graduate of Binghamton University in New York, where she received her bachelor’s degree in history and Africana studies. She earned both her master’s degree and a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University.

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