Laura Dinehart, dean of the College of Education and Human Development at Western Michigan University, has been appointed by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to the Every Child Reads Champions Council, a new statewide advisory board focused on strengthening the state’s early childhood literacy efforts. Before coming to Western Michigan, Dr. Dinehart was dean of the School of Education and Human Development at Florida International University. She is known for her research on the developmental and early academic outcomes of young children within the context of the early care and education environments.
Dr. Dinehart is a graduate of Florida International University, where she majored in psychology. She earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in applied developmental psychology from the University of Miami.
Alicia Ellis has been named director of the newly established Center for Agriculture and National Security within the Future Security Initiative at Arizona State University. Dr. Ellis is a professor of practice at the university’s School of Politics and Global Studies and director of the master’s degree program in global security. Her work bridges national security, economic statecraft, and supply chain resilience, with particular focus on how agricultural systems are increasingly targeted through gray-zone pressure, economic coercion, cyber vulnerabilities, and other non-kinetic forms of conflict.
Dr. Ellis is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, where she majored in political science. She holds a master’s degree in international relations from St. Mary’s University in Texas and a Ph.D. in political science with a focus on international relations and comparative politics from Arizona State University.
Kathleen Williamson is a new assistant clinical professor of school psychology in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. Williamson is a nationally certified school psychologist whose teaching and mentorship are informed by diverse experiences as a practicing school psychologist, researcher, and program leader. She recently completed postdoctoral training from UConn’s Collaboratory on School and Child Health.
Dr. Williamson holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary & special education from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. She earned both her master’s degree and doctorate in school psychology at the University of Connecticut.
Casie Hermansson was promoted from interim chair to permanent chair of English and modern languages and the intensive English program at Pittsburg State University in Kansas. She joined the university’s faculty in 1997. As a scholar, she studies adaptation, children’s literature, twentieth-century British literature, novels, and women’s literature. Dr. Hermansson is the author of several books, including her most recent monograph, Filming the Children’s Book: Adapting Metafiction (Edinburgh University Press, 2019).
Dr. Hermansson earned bachelor’s degrees in English and French from Massey University in New Zealand. She received her master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.
Samantha N. Friar has been named associate dean of Reach Teachers College at Reach University in Oakland, California. Dr. Friar has more than two decades of education experience spanning from K-12 through higher education. She has been serving as Reach University’s coordinator of clinical capstone.
Dr. Friar is a graduate of Tuskegee University in Alabama, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master of education degree from North Park University in Chicago and a doctorate in higher education leadership from National Louis University-Chicago.
Lindsey Simon-Jones is associate dean for curricular affairs and student services in the University College at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Simon-Jones, an associate professor of English, currently serves as chief academic officer at Penn State Fayette. She joined the Fayette faculty in 2009. From July 2024 to January 2025, she served as interim chancellor at the campus.
Dr. Simon-Jones is a graduate of Youngstown State University in Ohio, where she majored in English. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in English from Penn State.
Judith Crocker-Billingsley has been appointed chair of the department of social work at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. An associate professor of social work, Dr. Crocker-Billingsley has nearly three decades of experience as a social work educator. In addition to teaching, she serves as program director for the university’s bachelor of social work degree.
An alumna of Spelman College in Atlanta, Dr. Crocker-Billingsley holds a master of social work degree and a Ph.D. in policy, planning, administration, and social science from Clark Atlanta University.
Olga Amarie, professor of French and Francophone studies at Georgia Southern University, was named executive director of the board of Pi Delta Phi, the oldest national academic honor society for French studies in the United States. Dr. Amarie has been a Georgia Southern faculty member for the past 15 years. Her primary areas of research are twentieth- and twenty-first-century French literature and cinema.
Dr. Amarie received her bachelor’s degree in French and English from Alecu Russo State University in Moldova and her master’s degree in French literature from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Romania. She holds a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in French literature from Indiana University.
Andrea Hetling is director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. A faculty member since 2007, Dr. Hetling has served as the center’s associate director for the past four years. As a scholar, she focuses on social policy, program evaluation, and family economic security.
Dr. Hetling received her bachelor’s degree in political science and her master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University. She holds a doctorate in policy studies from the University of Maryland.
Gail E. Besner has been named a distinguished university professor at Ohio State University. The title is Ohio State’s highest faculty honor. Dr. Besner, the H. William Clatworthy Jr. Professor of Surgery in the College of Medicine, is director of the division of pediatric surgery and chief of pediatric surgery at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Her clinical expertise includes neonatal surgery, necrotizing enterocolitis, and pediatric burn care.
Dr. Besner earned her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati. She completed a residency in general surgery at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, a fellowship in surgical research at Boston Children’s Hospital, and a fellowship in pediatric surgery at Children’s Hospital of Buffalo in New York.