Each week, Women in Academia Report will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. The links presented direct the reader to articles from many different points of view that deal with issues of women in higher education. The articles selected do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board of WIAReport.
We invite subscribers to email us at contact@WIAReport.com with suggestions of articles for inclusion in this feature.
Women in Academia Report regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view. The opinions expressed in these books do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board of WIAReport. As an Amazon Associate, WIAReport will earn a fraction of revenue from qualifying purchases.
Here are the latest selections. Click on any of the titles for more information or to purchase through Amazon.
 The Accused: How Women Faced Justice for Nazi-Era Crimes by Jessica Trisko Darden (Yale University Press) |
 Gendered Impacts of China’s Development Initiatives in the Global South by Cai Yiping (Bloomsbury Academic) |
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 The Inattention Economy: How Women of Color Built the Internet by Lisa Nakamura (University of Minnesota Press) |
 M is for Misogyny: Tackling Discrimination Against Women and Girls in Primary School by Sarah Wordlaw (SAGE Publications) |
 Natural Resource Extraction and Violence Against Women in Rural Places: Drilling Down on Patriarchy by Walter DeKeseredy, Joseph Donnermeyer & Jayne Mooney (Routledge) |
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 A Psychoanalysis Influenced by Dissidence, Decoloniality, and Feminism by Fernando Barrios (Routledge) |
 Seven Sisters: Captives and Rebels in Revolutionary Europe’s First Family by Veronica Buckley (Viking Books) |
 Women, Wealth and Power in the Roman Republic edited by Catheine Steel and Lewis Webb (Cambridge University Press) |
Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
Bryn Mawr College, a women’s liberal arts educational institution in Pennsylvania, received a $10 million gift from trustee emeritus and alumna Jacqueline Badger Mars to support undergraduate student scholarships. Mars, the owner and operator of Stonehall Farm and a former executive at Mars Inc., has named her gift in honor of former Bryn Mawr President Kim Cassidy, who made affordability for students across the economic spectrum a defining priority of her tenure.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education has invested more than $1.7 million in 43 colleges and universities throughout the state to help combat sexual assault through education and awareness, and empower survivors through the It’s On Us PA program. The funding will support various initiatives across the participating institutions, including educational programming, resources for survivors, campus-wide awareness strategies, and self-defense classes. A list of colleges and universities that received grants can be viewed here.
Barnard College, a women’s liberal arts educational institution in New York City, received a $9.5 million gift from the late Hilma O. Carter, a 1945 Barnard alumna. A longtime high school teacher, Carter was an avid supporter of her alma mater. Her final donation, which is one of the largest bequests in Barnard’s history, will go towards the Hilma Ollila Carter and Benny Carter Scholarship Fund, which she endowed in 2012.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte received a $250,000 gift from The David & Nicole Tepper Foundation to support Let Me Play, an initiative that focuses on advancing the university’s women’s athletics programs. The new funds will support the well-being, training environments, leadership development, and continued competitiveness of Charlotte Athletics’ more than 230 women student-athletes across multiple varsity programs.
Swarthmore College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution in Pennsylvania, has promoted five scholars to the rank of full professor. Three of these promotions went to women.
Diane Anderson is a professor of educational studies. Professor Anderson previously served as the associate dean for academic affairs for eight years. She uses active experiences and ethnographic methods to explore the power of the social identities of readers, writers, and learners. Dr. Anderson is a graduate of what is now Montclair State University in New Jersey. She holds a master’s degree from Drexel University in Philadelphia and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Lara Cohen is a professor of English literature. She teaches courses on early American literature, especially nineteenth-century African American literature. Professor Cohen is the author of Going Underground: Race, Space, and the Subterranean in the Nineteenth-Century United States (Duke University Press, 2023) and The Fabrication of American Literature: Fraudulence and Antebellum Print Culture (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). Professor Cohen joined the faculty at Swarthmore in 2013.
Nsoki Mavinga was promoted to professor of mathematics. She joined the faculty in 2014 after teaching at the University of Rochester in New York. Her research focuses on nonlinear analysis and partial differential equations. She is particularly interested in the solvability of nonlinear second order parabolic and elliptic partial differential equations subject to nonlinear boundary conditions, and how these problems interrelate with physical and biological phenomena. She holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Susan Armstrong Henry, the first woman to lead the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, passed away on March 7. She was 79 years old.
Born in Alexandria, Virginia, and raised in the Washington, D.C., area, Dr. Henry earned her bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Maryland and her Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California, Berkeley. After completing her doctorate, she joined the faculty at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, ultimately rising to the rank of professor. Dr. Henry then moved to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where she served as head of biological sciences and later as dean of the Mellon College of Science.
In 2000, Dr. Henry was named the Ronald P. Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, making her the college’s first woman dean. Over the course of her deanship, she oversaw the completion of numerous facilities, such as the Cornell Teaching Winery and the Riley-Robb Biofuels Laboratory, as well as renovations to Cornell’s Mann Library. Dr. Henry helped to establish four new majors and several academic partnerships with international universities. She stepped down from her deanship in 2010 but continued to serve on the Cornell faculty as dean emerita until 2020.
As a professor of molecular biology and genetics, Dr. Henry developed new methodologies for using yeast to understand the genetics of many organisms, including humans. She also conducted extensive research that revealed insights into how cells build their membranes. In addition to her affiliation with the New York Farm Bureau, Dr. Henry was a member of multiple scientific organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Genetics Society of America, the American Society of Biological Chemists, and the American Society of Microbiologists.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University recently partnered with the Hip-Hop Education Center (HHEC) to launch “Fresh, Bold & So Def: Women in Hip-Hop Archives and Scholarship,” a new initiative dedicated to advancing the cultural legacy of women in hip-hop music.
Developed by HHEC President Martha Diaz, the three-year initiative will activate new research, classroom learning, creative production, multimedia storytelling, public scholarship, and community-centered dialogue across the UMass Amherst and Princeton campuses.
“This is more than an academic collaboration, it’s a powerful reclamation,” said Diaz. “Women have shaped hip-hop from the beginning, often without acknowledgment or permanent record. Fresh, Bold & So Def ensures that our stories aren’t just preserved, they’re studied, uplifted, and amplified by the next generation of artists, scholars, and cultural keepers.”
In Fall 2025, UMass Amherst launched its first course under the initiative, “Hip-Hop Cultures.” The course combines archival research methods with live engagement from women in hip-hop. Additionally, the new initiative allowed UMass Amherst to welcome Priscila Altivo, the inaugural Lisa Cortés Fellow. Altivo is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Afro-American studies at the university and contributing to the development of the Women in Hip-Hop Archives.
At Princeton, the Lewis Center for the Arts is slated to launch a new course, “Miss-Education: The Women of Hip-Hop.” In this dynamic class and multimedia performance lab, students will create live performances and participate in conversations with prominent women in hip-hop.
Going forward, both universities will develop a series of public symposia, conferences, and exhibitions. The first major student-led event will be held at UMass Amherst in April. The conference will feature installations showcasing women’s contributions to dance, music, film, beatboxing, theatre, and visual arts.
The Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, recently launched the Corruption, Networks, and Transnational Crime Research Center (CONTRA). The new research hub aims to advance how transnational crime can be understood and studied by combining deep empirical insights with sophisticated and diverse methodological approaches.
Three women professors will serve as CONTRA’s co-directors.
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera has taught in the Schar School of Policy and Government since 2017. She achieved the rank of full professor in 2022. Dr. Correa-Cabrera’s research on migration, borderlands, networks, and criminal organizations has significantly advanced the understanding of the interactions between human smuggling, organized crime, and state power. Her most recent book is Frontera: A Journey across the U.S.-Mexico Border (Texas Christian University Press, 2024). Dr. Correa-Cabrera is a graduate of Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, where she majored in economics. She earned two master’s degrees and a Ph.D., all in political science, from The New School in New York City.
Naoru Koizumi is the Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Endowed Chair and associate dean for research in the Schar School, where she has taught for more than two decades. Through qualitative methods and networking modeling approaches, Dr. Koizumi studies illicit organ trafficking and other hidden economies, offering powerful and practical tools to understand and disrupt criminal markets. She is a graduate of Aoyama-Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan, where she received her bachelor’s degree in business administration with a minor in economics. Dr. Koizumi earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in regional science from the University of Pennsylvania and a second Ph.D. in environmental and preventive medicine from the Hyogo College of Medicine in Japan.
Janine Wedel, Distinguished University Professor, is a social anthropologist. An expert in corruption and informal power networks, she has conducted extensive research on how elites operate across blurred public-private boundaries, reshaping governance and accountability worldwide. Dr. Wedel is the author of numerous award-winning books, including Unaccountable: How the Establishment Corrupted Our Finances, Freedom, and Politics and Created an Outsider Class (Pegasus Books, 2016). Dr. Wedel received her bachelor’s degree in history, social sciences, and German from Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas, her master’s degree in anthropology and East European studies from Indiana University, and her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Author, activist, educator, and feminist scholar Paula Brown Doress-Worters passed away on February 21. She was 87 years old.
Dr. Doress-Worters earned her bachelor’s degree from Suffolk University in her hometown of Boston. Later in life, she received her master’s degree in women’s studies from the now-closed Goddard College in Vermont and her Ph.D. in social psychology from Boston College, where her dissertation focused on caregiving.
Dr. Doress-Worters is best known as one of the eleven co-founders of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, which is now known as Our Bodies, Ourselves (OBOS). For more than five decades, Dr. Doress-Worters wrote numerous papers and book chapters on women’s health and sexuality, menopause, parenthood, and a variety of other feminist topics. In 2025, OBOS merged with Suffolk University’s Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights.
As an academic, Dr. Doress-Worters taught women’s history at Emerson College in Boston and served as a fellow at Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research Center, where she conducted extensive research on the nineteenth-century Jewish feminist, abolitionist, and freethinker Ernestine Rose. In 2008, Dr. Doress-Worters published Mistress of Herself (Feminist Press), an edited collection of Rose’s speeches and letters.
Mechthild Tegeder has been granted the title of Regents Professor at Washington State University. A professor of biological sciences, Dr. Tegeder is a leading authority in the field of plant biology. Her research focuses on developing strategies to improve crop productivity in service of meeting the world’s food supply and alternative energy source needs.
Dr. Tegeder earned her Ph.D. from the University of Göttingen in Germany and did her
postdoctoral research at the University of Newcastle in Australia.
María P. Aranda has been named a Distinguished Professor of Social Work at the University of Southern California. She currently serves as the Margaret W. Driscoll/Louise M. Clevenger Professor of Social Policy and Administration and executive director of the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging. A social worker snd sociobehavioral scholar, Dr. Aranda is known for her expertise in the fields of social work, geriatrics, and gerontology.
Dr. Aranda is a graduate of California State University, Los Angeles, where she earned her bachelor of social work degree. She holds a master of social work degree, a master of public administration degree, and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.
Andrea Hohmann has been granted the title of Distinguished Professor at Indiana University. Dr. Hohmann, the Linda and Jack Gill Chair of Neuroscience and a professor of psychological and brain sciences, is known for her research on cannabinoid and endocannabinoid mechanisms, which has advanced non-opioid, non-addictive strategies for pain relief. Her work has demonstrated how neuropathic pain can be suppressed without developing tolerance, dependence, or debilitating side effects.
Dr. Hohmann received her bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and Ph.D. from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Karin Öberg is the new senior vice provost for faculty at Harvard University. Dr. Öberg, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of Natural Sciences and a professor of astronomy, has been a member of the Harvard community since 2009. She previously served as director of undergraduate studies for the department of astronomy. As a scholar, Dr. Öberg studies how chemistry influences the formation and composition of young planets that are taking shape in the swirling disks of dust and gas around young stars.
Dr. Öberg earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. in astronomy from Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Rupali Chandar has been granted the title of Distinguished University Professor at the University of Toledo in Ohio. A faculty member for nearly two decades, Dr. Chandar currently serves as the Helen Luedtke Brooks Endowed Professor of Astronomy and associate chair of the department of physics and astronomy. Her research uses observational astronomy measurements obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, and other facilities to better understand how galaxies evolve.
A graduate of Haverford College in Pennsylvania, Dr. Chandar holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Carnegie Observatories.
Tonya L. Peeples has been named a special adviser to the executive vice president and provost at Pennsylvania State University. She will be stepping down from her current role as the Harold and Inge Marcus Dean of Engineering in Penn State’s College of Engineering to help shape the creation of the university’s new office of student success. A professor of chemical engineering, Dr. Peeples previously served as the College of Engineering’s inaugural associate dean for equity and inclusion.
Dr. Peeples received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from North Carolina State University and her doctorate in the same discipline from Johns Hopkins University.
Linda Aiken, professor and founding director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, has received the 2026 American Nursing Association President’s Award. The honor recognizes leaders whose public influence has advanced the nursing profession in enduring ways.
A pioneering outcomes scientist, Dr. Aiken has reshaped global nursing workforce standards through her decades of research. Her empirical work has demonstrated the critical link between nurse staffing levels, educational preparation, and patient safety, providing the scientific foundation for modern staffing policies worldwide.
“I am honored and gratified to receive this recognition from the American Nurses Association on behalf of practicing nurses,” said Dr. Aiken. “My life’s work has been dedicated to creating the evidence base to enable the nation’s 4.7 million professional nurses to provide safe and effective care and to lead innovations that improve access to and quality of healthcare in our country and globally.”
Dr. Aiken earned her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in nursing from the University of Florida. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in medical sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Ka Yee C. Lee was promoted from interim dean to permanent dean of the physical sciences division at the University of Chicago. Dr. Lee, the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor of Chemistry, has taught at the university since 1998. An expert in membrane biophysics, Dr. Lee has served in several roles throughout her long tenure, including provost and vice provost for research.
Dr. Lee is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she majored in electrical engineering. She received her master’s degree and Ph.D. in applied physics from Harvard University and completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Marjorie Shavers has been selected to serve as interim dean of the College of Education at Missouri State University. A faculty member since 2021, Dr. Shavers currently serves as the college’s associate dean. Earlier in her tenure, she served as head of the counseling, leadership, and special education department and director of the School of Special Education, Leadership, and Professional Studies.
Dr. Shavers holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a master’s degree in community counseling, and a doctorate in counselor education, all from Ohio State University.
Christina Saenger has been promoted from interim dean to permanent dean of the Williamson College of Business Administration at Youngstown State University in Ohio. Prior to her interim appointment, Dr. Saenger was the college’s associate dean. She first joined the Youngstown State faculty in 2014 and has also served as director of faculty relations. Her research focuses on consumer behavior, marketing strategy, and word-of-mouth communication.
Dr. Saenger received her bachelor’s degree in business and organizational communication and her MBA from the University of Akron in Ohio. She holds a doctorate in marketing from Kent State University in Ohio.
Emily Tanner-Smith was named dean of the College of Education at the University of Oregon, where she has taught in the department of counseling psychology and human services for nearly a decade. She also serves as the inaugural executive director of the college’s HEDCO Institute for Evidence-Based Educational Practice. Her work centers on youth behavioral and mental health, particularly substance-use prevention and research synthesis for evidence-based decision-making.
A graduate of Belmont University in Nashville, Dr. Tanner-Smith earned her master’s degree and doctorate from Vanderbilt University.
Yale University’s Marlene L. Daut, professor of French and Black studies, and Kaiama L. Glover, professor of Black studies, have been awarded the 2026 René Wellek Prize for their co-edited book, A History of Haitian Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2024). Presented by the American Comparative Literature Association, the René Wellek Prize is awarded to two outstanding comparative literature books each year — one for a single or co-authored monograph and another for an edited collection.
Featuring essays from 27 individual contributors, A History of Haitian Literature presents the political, cultural, and historical frameworks necessary to comprehend Haiti’s vast literary output since before the nation declared independence in 1804 through the present day.
A Yale faculty member since 2022, Professor Daut teaches courses in Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean, African American, and French colonial literary and historical studies. Her research on the history of the Caribbean has lead to several award-winning books, including The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe (Alfred A. Knopf, 2025), Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution (University of North Carolina Press, 2023), and Baron de Vastey and the Origins of Black Atlantic Humanism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). Professor Daut holds a bachelor’s degree in English and French from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
A scholar of French, Francophone, Caribbean, and Haitian literary studies, Professor Glover joined the Yale faculty in 2023 after teaching French and Africana studies at Barnard College in New York City. Throughout her career, she has published a variety of edited collections and monographs, including A Regarded Self: Caribbean Womanhood and the Ethics of Disorderly Being (Duke University Press, 2021) and Haiti Unbound: A Spiralist Challenge to the Postcolonial Canon (Liverpool University Press, 2010). She is also an award-winning translator of Francophone fiction and non-fiction. Professor Glover received her bachelor’s degree in French history and literature and Afro-American studies from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in French and Romance philology from Columbia University.
Reena Khosla is special assistant to the provost for data strategy at Washington State University. Khosla most recently served as director of enterprise data warehouse in the Office of Data, Assessment, and Institutional Research at Kansas State University. Earlier, she spent 19 years working in various data management and business intelligence roles with Colorado State University.
Khosla earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Kasturba Gandhi College in India and a master’s degree in computer science from Virginia Tech.
Afiya Browne is director of the MultiCultural Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Browne has worked for the center for nearly a decade providing strategic leadership and developing programs such as the Holistic Safety Plan. For the past two years, she has served as the center’s interim director.
Browne received her bachelor’s degree in sociology and Black studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Irvine.
Cheryl Balchunas is the executive director of the Howard Community College Educational Foundation. With over two decades of fundraising experience, Balchunas’ background spans higher education and healthcare philanthropy. Most recently, she was the inaugural chief development officer for the Do Good Campus at the University of Maryland. Earlier, she was senior director of development for the Center for Neuroscience and Behavioral Science at Children’s National Hospital.
Balchunas earned her bachelor’s degree from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland, and her master’s degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Emma Reynolds Reabold has been named executive director of strategic initiatives at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina. Currently, Reabold serves as vice president for development and campus services at South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities. Earlier in her career, she worked in student affairs and advising roles with the University of South Carolina and Clemson University.
Reabold holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and English from Presbyterian College and a master’s degree in counselor education from Clemson University. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy at the University of South Carolina.
Dilcie D. Perez was promoted from deputy vice chancellor to vice chancellor of strategic enrollment management and student success for the California State University System. Prior to being named deputy vice chancellor, Dr. Perez was the system’s associate vice chancellor for student affairs. She has also held educational leadership roles with the Cerritos Community College District, the MiraCosta Community College District, and California State University, San Marcos.
Dr. Perez holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from California State University, San Marcos, a master’s degree in administration from Central Michigan University, and a doctorate in educational leadership from San Diego State University.
Heather Adkins is a new curator and archivist with the Alabama State Black Archives, Research Center, and Museum at Alabama A&M University. Adkins previously led the special collections department at Huntsville-Madison County Public Library in Alabama for seven years. Earlier, she worked for the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville.
Adkins received her bachelor’s degree in history from Tennessee Tech University and her master’s degree in public history with an emphasis in archives management from Middle Tennessee State University.
Olivia K. Cook, the Florida State University College of Arts and Sciences’ Dean’s Postdoctoral Scholar, has been named the 2026 National Postdoc of the Year by the National Postdoctoral Association. The award recognizes Dr. Cook for advancing the postdoctoral community through exceptional services and leadership beyond her primary research duties.
At Florida State University, Dr. Cook conducts research with the department of psychology and the Learning Systems Institute on topics relating to children’s development of skills that underlie their long-term academic success. As an active leader within the FSU Postdoctoral Association, she developed a survey of postdoctoral scholar health and well-being and used the results to provide policy recommendations to Florida State administrators on postdocs’ access to healthcare, childcare, and parental leave.
Dr. Cook earned her bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in human development and family studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Tiffany Heng-Moss is the Harlan Vice Chancellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and vice president for agriculture and natural resources for the University of Nebraska system. A faculty member since 2001, Dr. Heng-Moss previously served as dean of the university’s College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Her research focuses on developing crops with resistance to insect pests and understanding plant defense mechanisms across Nebraska’s major cropping systems.
Dr. Heng-Moss earned her bachelor’s degree in horticulture, her master’s degree in entomology, and her Ph.D. in entomology all from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
SaMin Han is the inaugural Michael L. and Mary B. Hatcher Endowed Professor in Landscape Architecture at Mississippi State University. Dr. Han, currently in her fifth year at Mississippi State, teaches undergradaute and graduate courses in grading for construction, watershed management, and proposal writing. Her work integrates ecological modeling, spatial analytics, and design-based inquiry to address the complex social and environmental challenges faced by coastal communities.
Dr. Han is a graduate of Seoul National University in South Korea, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture and regional planning. She holds a master’s degree in landscape architecture and regional planning and a Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
Emily Bernhardt was named the Francis J. DiSalvo Director of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She will also serve as a professor in the Ashley School of Global Development and the Environment. Currently, Dr. Bernhardt is the James B. Duke Professor of Biogeochemistry at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. As a freshwater ecologist and biogeochemist, she studies the extent to which land use change, global change, and chemical pollution are altering the structure and function of aquatic ecosystems. She also examines the efficacy of efforts to protect and restore streams and wetlands.
Dr. Bernhardt received her bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her Ph.D. in biogeochemistry from Cornell University.
Melanie Joy was appointed the inaugural David and Nancy Lamb Endowed Chair in Pharmacy Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Anschutz Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Joy has served in several leadership capacities at the pharmacy school, including director of innovation and commercialization, director of entrepreneurship education, and director of the Center for Excellence Program for Model Informed Drug Development. Her academic expertise centers on kidney disease pharmacology.
Dr. Joy holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the University of Pittsburgh, a doctor of pharmacy degree from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences and molecular pharmaceuticals from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ruby L. Broadway, longtime professor of biology at Dillard University in New Orleans, passed away on March 10. She was 71 years old.
A native of Washington, D.C., Dr. Broadway dedicated over four decades of her life to Dillard University. She joined the university in 1983 as an assistant professor of biology, ultimately rising to the rank of full professor. During her tenure, she also held distinctions such as the Delta Sigma Theta Distinguished Professor Endowed Chair and the ACUE Distinguished Teaching Scholar. Dr. Broadway also taught as an adjunct professor with Southern University at New Orleans for more than 20 years.
As a scholar of environmental health and molecular biology, Dr. Broadway focused her work on issues such as lead contamination and the cellular mechanisms involved in leukemia research. In addition to her own research, she was dedicated to advancing STEM pathways for students from historically underrepresented communities. At Dillard, Dr. Broadway helped to establish academic enrichment programs for local elementary and middle school students, a pre-freshman engineering summer program, and numerous research and mentoring opportunities for undergraduate students.
Vanya Quiñones has been named the eighth president of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Upon assuming her role on July 1, she will be the university’s first Latina president.
Cal Poly Pomona enrolls more than 25,000 undergraduates and nearly 2,400 graduate students, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. Women are 44 percent of the undergraduate student population.
For the past four years, Dr. Quiñones has served as president of California State University, Monterey Bay. Over the course of her presidency, she has overseen a nearly 30 percent growth in enrollment, expanded academic programs, and increased research funding and philanthropic giving.
Previously, Dr. Quiñones was provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Pace University in New York. Earlier, she spent 21 years on the faculty at the City University of New York’s Hunter College, rising through the academic ranks to serve as a full professor and chair of the psychology department. She also served as Hunter’s associate provost for student success and retention.
As a neurobiologist and biopsychologist, Dr. Quiñones has authored more than 70 publications throughout her career. She was one of the first researchers to describe gender differences in the brain.
“I am profoundly honored to be chosen to lead Cal Poly Pomona, become part of its long and impressive history, and contribute to its future vision,” said Dr. Quiñones. “I am drawn to Cal Poly Pomona’s strong focus on measuring success by the opportunities it creates and the impact it has on students, families, and the surrounding community. I welcome the opportunity to work in partnership with the campus community to support the continued success of the institution and advance its mission for years to come.”
Dr. Quiñones earned her bachelor’s degree in biology and her master’s degree in cell biology from the University of Puerto Rico. She holds a doctorate in neurobiology and physiology from Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Shawna Cooper Whitehead has been named the 29th president of Regis University in Denver, Colorado. Upon assuming her post on July 1, she will be the university’s first woman president.
According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education, Regis University enrolls nearly 2,700 undergraduates and roughly 1,900 graduate students. Women represent over two-thirds of the undergraduate student population.
Dr. Cooper Whitehead brings extensive experience in student affairs and academic leadership to her new role. She comes to Regis from Boston College, where she has served as vice president of student affairs since 2021. Earlier, she was assistant provost at Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Cooper Whitehead’s other experience in academia includes service as dean of students for the School of Social Administration at the University of Chicago, director of African American student affairs at Northwestern University, assistant director of the Student Activities Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and assistant dean of the School of Communication at Loyola University Chicago.
“I just can’t wait to be a part of this community,” said Dr. Cooper Whitehead. “It is a blessing to have the opportunity to serve the mission and the incredible people that make up Regis University. My experience in Jesuit higher education has brought out the best in me professionally and personally, and I hope to give that same gift to all our students, faculty, staff, and everyone in the Regis community. I’m ready to get started.”
A graduate of the University of Illinois, Dr. Cooper Whitehead holds a master of education degree from National Louis University in Chicago and an educational doctorate from Boston University.
Following more than a year of interim service, Alicia M. Alvero has been named executive vice chancellor and university provost at the City University of New York (CUNY). She is the system’s first Latina to serve in this capacity.
Dr. Alvero has over two decades of experience at CUNY, including both faculty and administrative roles. Before her interim provost appointment, she was vice chancellor for academic affairs. Earlier, Dr. Alvero served as a professor of organizational behavior management and associate provost for academic and faculty affairs at Queens College in New York. She frequently speaks and writes about applying organizational behavior management to solve challenges and enhance leadership in higher education.
Dr. Alvero earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Florida International University and both her master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology and her Ph.D. in applied behavior analysis from Western Michigan University.
Gwen Cash-James was appointed provost and vice president for academic affairs at North Idaho College. She will begin her new role on June 1.
Most recently, Dr. Cash-James was vice provost and dean of academic affairs at Eastern Washington University. Earlier, she was dean of arts and sciences at Spokane Community College in Washington and a tenured English faculty member with Washington’s community colleges. Her academic expertise centers on faculty development, leadership, sensemaking and sensegiving, and accreditation and assessment. Since 2012, Dr. Cash-James has been an evaluator for the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.
Dr. Cash-James holds a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, a master’s degree in English from Eastern Washington University, and a doctorate in higher education administration from Northeastern University in Boston.
Julie Gorlewski was named provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York (SUNY) Fredonia. Her appointment begins in July.
Dr. Gorlewski comes to SUNY Fredonia from Hunter College in New York, where she has been serving as the Klara and Larry Silverstein Dean of the School of Education. Previously, she was senior associate dean for teacher education and academic affairs in the Graduate School of Education at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Gorlewski has also taught at Virginia Commonwealth University and SUNY New Paltz. Her scholarship focuses on instructional practice, teacher education, and educational policy.
Dr. Gorlewski is a graduate of SUNY Buffalo State University, where she majored in secondary English education. She holds a master’s degree in elementary education and a Ph.D. in the social foundations of education from the University at Buffalo.
Each week, Women in Academia Report will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. The links presented direct the reader to articles from many different points of view that deal with issues of women in higher education. The articles selected do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board of WIAReport.
We invite subscribers to email us at contact@WIAReport.com with suggestions of articles for inclusion in this feature.
Women in Academia Report regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view. The opinions expressed in these books do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board of WIAReport. As an Amazon Associate, WIAReport will earn a fraction of revenue from qualifying purchases.
Here are the latest selections. Click on any of the titles for more information or to purchase through Amazon.
 Disrupt the “Not-Telling”: Gatekeeping Issues on the Way to Tenure and Promotion for Black Women at HBCUs, MSIs, and PWIs edited by Leah P. Hollis et al. (Oxford University Press) |
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 The Future That Was: A History of Third World Feminism Against Authoritarianism by Durba Mitra (Princeton University Press) |
 Inquisition for Blood: The Making of a Black Female Serial Killer in the Jim Crow South by Luren Nicole Henley (Louisiana State University Press) |
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 Sport and Violence Against Women: Research, Theory, and Policy by Walter DeKeserdy et al. (University of Toronto Press) |
 Using Women’s Economic Empowerment to Combat Intimate Partner Violence edited by Tatenda Manomano et al. (Routledge) |
Deborah German, founding dean of the College of Medicine and vice president for health affairs at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, has announced she will step down from her leadership role following two decades of service.
Dr. German will continue to serve in her leadership roles as the university searches for her permanent successor. Following that transition, she will serve one year as senior advisor for health affairs to the president and provost.
When Dr. German arrived at the University of Central Florida in 2006, she was the medical school’s only employee and was tasked with building the College of Medicine from the ground up. She soon helped secure more than $6.5 million in funding to provide full four-year scholarships and living expenses for the school’s inaugural medical degree class. Additionally, she integrated research requirements into the college’s curriculum, ensuring every medical student conducted original scientific research.
Over the next two decades, Dr. German established several academic programs, including residency partnerships with local healthcare organizations, an Academic Health Sciences Center, a clinical trials division, and an aerospace medicine program. She also led the development of new research centers and academic schools, as well as healthcare facilities supporting the local Orlando community.
“Watching our growth and our impact on so many people, including my own family, has been both humbling and deeply rewarding,” said Dr. German. “My goal in coming to UCF was to create the academic anchor of a new Medical City. That foundation is now fully in place; we have done a good job. Now it is time for new leadership that will take us to new heights.”
Dr. German earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Boston University and her medical degree from Harvard University. After completing a residency at the University of Rochester, she completed a fellowship in rheumatic and genetic diseases at Duke University. She went on to hold research, academic, and leadership appointments with Duke, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Vanderbilt University, Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville, and the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Susan Haack, distinguished professor in the humanities at the University of Miami, passed away on March 10. She was 80 years old.
A native of Buckinghamshire, England, Dr. Haack earned two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Cambridge. Her early career in academia began as a fellow with Cambridge’s New Hall, followed by service as a faculty member at the University of Warwick.
In 1990, Dr. Haack joined the law and philosophy faculty of the University of Miami in Florida. She achieved the rank of full professor in 2000 and was named a distinguished professor in 2006.
Dr. Haack’s scholarship bridged the worlds of formal logic and legal practice. Throughout her career, she published a dozen books, including Evidence Matters: Science, Proof, and Truth in the Law (Cambridge University Press, 2014). In addition to teaching at the University of Miami, Dr. Haack frequently lectured at other universities around the world. Her teaching and research earned her numerous awards, including the Ulysses Medal from University College Dublin in Ireland and the Premio internacional de cultura jurídica from the University of Girona in Spain.
Valerie Smith, the first Black president of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, has announced her intent to retire at the conclusion of the 2026-2027 academic year. Dr. Smith, who also serves as the inaugural Roy J. and Linda G. Shanker Presidential Chair, began her presidency at the highly selective liberal arts college in 2015.
“Serving as Swarthmore’s fifteenth president has been one of the great privileges of my life,” said Dr. Smith. “Every day, I am reminded that, in addition to its academic excellence, Swarthmore is defined by the students whose curiosity and conviction inspire us all; the faculty whose teaching and scholarship expand the boundaries of knowledge; by the staff members whose dedication sustains our shared work; and by alumni, families, and friends whose stories are living testaments to the power of a Swarthmore education, and whose loyalty and generosity ensure that this community continues to thrive.”
Before coming to Swarthmore, Dr. Smith was dean of the college and the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton University. She first joined the Ivy League institution in 1980 as an instructor of English and was awarded tenure in 1986. Dr. Smith left Princeton briefly in 1989 to join the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles. She returned to Princeton in 2001 and was named chair of the African American studies program one year later.
Dr. Smith is a graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. A scholar of African American literature, she is the author or editor of several books, including Toni Morrison: Writing the Moral Imagination (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014) and Not Just Race, Not Just Gender: Black Feminist Readings (Routledge, 1998)
Faye Gary, distinguished university professor at Case Western Reserve University, passed away on March 1. She was 84 years old.
A native of Ocala, Florida, Dr. Gary earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing and sociology from Florida A&M University, her master’s degree in psychiatric nursing and anthropology from Saint Xavier College (now University) in Chicago, and her doctorate in childhood behavioral disorders and anthropology from the University of Florida.
Dr. Gary’s career as a nurse, scholar, and educator spanned over five decades, including 23 years at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. She first joined the university in 2003 and ultimately served as the Medical Mutual of Ohio Kent W. Clapp Chair and Professor of Nursing and a professor in the department of psychiatry. Dr. Gary was also a key leader in the development of the university’s Provost Scholars Program, which offers academic enrichment opportunities to East Cleveland and Cleveland students through faculty mentorship, student tutoring, and on-campus programming.
Throughout her lifetime, Dr. Gary conducted extensive research that shaped health policy involving child and adolescent mental health, health disparities, and domestic violence. She was a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, who honored her as a Living Legend in 2024. Dr. Gary was also involved with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service’s Ethnic Minority Fellowship Program, the National Advisory Committee of the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of Minority Health Disparities.
Founded in 1861, Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, was one of the Seven Sisters liberal arts colleges for women. It became a coeducational institution in 1970. Today, women make up 62 percent of the student body.
The highly rated liberal arts educational institution has recently announced that 11 faculty members have been promoted to associate professor and granted tenure. Six of the promotions went to women.
Alicia Atwood, who joined the college’s faculty in 2018, was named an associate professor of economics. She is an applied microeconomist with interests in health and labor economics. Dr. Atwood is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she majored in biomedical engineering. She holds a master’s degree in health policy and management from Columbia University in New York City and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Myra Hughey was promoted to associate professor of biology. Her research examines how animals come to host specific groups of microbes and how stress, disease, and varying environmental conditions affect the relationship between microbes and their hosts. A member of the Vassar faculty since 2018, Dr. Hughey is a graduate of Loyola University in New Orleans. She holds a Ph.D. in biology from Boston University.
Krystle McLaughin is a new associate professor of chemistry. She joined the faculty at Vassar in 2017. Dr. McLaughin is currently the co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) Centers for Research on Structural Biology of Infectious Diseases. Dr. McLaughin is a graduate of Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, where she majored in physics. She holds a Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of Rochester in New York.
Lori Newman was promoted to associate professor of psychological sciences. Her research includes examining the unique role of astrocytes, star-shaped cells that bring resources in and out of the brain as well as play a role in immune responses in the brain and in attention, learning, and memory. A member of the Vassar faculty since 2017. Dr. Newman is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire.
Tracy O’Neill was appointed associate professor of English. She is the author of the award-winning book Woman of Interest: A Memoir – A Dark and Funny True Story About Crime, Family, and a Search for Identity in Korea (HarperOne, 2024). A graduate of Connecticut College with a degree in history, Professor O’Neill has also authored two novels. She holds two master’s degrees in communications from Columbia University and a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the City University of New York. She joined the Vassar faculty in 2020.
Catherine Tan was promoted to associate professor of sociology. A faculty member since 2020, Dr. Tan’s research interests include medical sociology, science knowledge and technology, social movements, and qualitative methods. She is the author of Spaces on the Spectrum: How Autism Movements Resist Experts and Create Knowledge (Columbia University Press, 2024). Dr. Tan holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California, San Diego, a master’s degree in sociology from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in sociology from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Elayne Hayes-Anthony, former journalism professor who served as acting president of Jackson State University in Mississippi, passed away on March 5. She was 73 years old.
A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Dr. Hayes-Anthony earned her bachelor’s degree in speech communication and broadcasting from Jackson State University. Her early career was in broadcast journalism, including being the first Black woman to serve as an anchor, producer, and reporter at WJTV Channel 12 in Jackson. While working as a journalist, Dr. Hayes-Anthony returned to Jackson State to complete her master’s degree in educational technology. She then went on to become the African American woman to earn a doctorate in communication from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
As an academic, Dr. Hayes-Anthony spent nearly two decades on the faculty of Belhaven College in Jackson, where she founded the department of communications. At Jackson State University, she had stints as director of graduate studies for the mass communication department and chair of the journalism department. She was named acting president of Jackson State in 2023.
Katherine Macfarlane, professor and director of the disability law and policy program in the College of Law at Syracuse University in New York, was elected chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) section on Women in Legal Education. She previously served as the section’s chair-elect and treasurer, and has also chaired the AALS section on disability law. A senior fellow at Syracuse’s Burton Blatt Institute, Professor Macfarlane focuses her scholarship on students, lawyers, and professors with disabilities, and the challenges they face in obtaining reasonable accommodations.
Professor Macfarlane holds a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and a juris doctorate from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Karen Thole has been named the inaugural director of the National Security Institute at Pennsylvania State University. Her appointment marks a return to Penn State, where she previously served as a distinguished professor of mechanical engineering, department head of mechanical engineering, director of the Engineering Ambassador Network, and director of the Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine Lab. Since August 2024, Dr. Thole has been the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering at the University of Michigan. Before her initial tenure with Penn State, she was the William Cross Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech.
Dr. Thole earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois. She holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Tahira M. Probst was granted the title of Regents Professor at Washington State University. Dr. Probst, a professor of psychology, serves as director of the university’s Coalition for Healthy and Equitable Workplaces lab. As a scholar of occupational health psychology, she centers her work on job insecurity, workplace safety, and worker well-being.
Dr. Probst is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, where she majored in psychology and German. She earned a Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology at the University of Illinois.
Judy Schaechter was appointed chair of the department of pediatrics at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont and UVM Health. She will also serve as chief of pediatrics at Golisano Children’s Hospital. A professor emerita of pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Dr. Schaechter has been serving as director of the division of violence prevention for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. During her tenure with Miami, she held the George E. Batchelor Endowed Chair in Child Health and served as chair of the department of pediatrics for eight years.
Dr. Schaechter is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she majored in religious studies and ethics. She holds an MBA from the University of Miami and a medical doctorate from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Natasha Trethewey, the Board of Trustees Professor of English at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, is the 2026 recipient of Oregon State University’s Stone Award for Literary Achievement. The prize, worth $20,000, recognizes major American authors with bodies of critically acclaimed work that influence multiple generations of writers, readers, and thinkers.
Professor Trethewey served two terms as the nineteenth Poet Laureate of the United States from 2012 to 2014, while also serving as Poet Laureate of Mississippi from 2012 to 2016. She is the author of five collections of poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Native Guard (Ecco, 2006), a volume that connects Trethewey’s upbringing and family history with the racial legacy of the American South. In addition to her poetry, Professor Trethewey has published one non-fiction book, Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (University of Georgia Press, 2010), and a memoir, Memorial Drive (Ecco, 2020).
The Stone Award is Professor Trethewey’s latest honor in a series of prestigious awards, including the 2017 Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities and the 2020 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt Prize in Poetry for Lifetime Achievement from the Library of Congress. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the American Philosophical Society.
Before joining the Northwestern faculty in 2017, Professor Trethewey taught at Emory University in Atlanta for 15 years, ultimately serving as the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing and director of the creative writing program. She earned her master of fine arts degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Mary Frances Luce was promoted from interim dean to permanent dean of the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Luce, the Robert A. Ingram Professor of Business Administration, is the first alumna of the school to serve as its dean. A Duke faculty member since 2004, she previously served as Fuqua’s senior associate dean for faculty and as associate vice president for Duke’s office of research and innovation. Dr. Luce’s research centers around emotion and decision-making, particularly in health contexts.
A graduate of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, Dr. Luce earned her Ph.D. in business administration with a concentration in marketing from Duke.
Gabrielle Rachael Thomas has been named dean and president of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale University. She will also serve as associate dean of Yale Divinity School. Dr. Thomas’s new role marks a return to Yale, where she previously taught from 2019 to 2021. Currently, Dr. Thomas is an associate professor of early Christianity and Anglican studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. While most of her scholarship has focused on early Christianity, she also studies the implications of historical theology for today’s church and women’s experiences in ministry and the academy.
Dr. Thomas holds a bachelor’s degree in classics from the University of Bristol and a Ph.D. in historical theology from the University of Nottingham, both in England.
Karen Drenkard has been appointed acting divisional dean of the School of Nursing in the College of Public Health at George Mason University in Virginia. Most recently, Dr. Drenkard served as a professor and associate dean of clinical practice and community engagement at the George Washington University School of Nursing. She is president of Drenkard Healthcare Consulting, where she helps healthcare systems, schools of nursing, technology companies, and national organizations with strategic planning, academic-practice partnership development, quality management, and leadership advancement.
Dr. Drenkard is a graduate of Russell Sage College in Troy, New York. She earned a master’s degree in nursing administration from Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia, and a Ph.D. in nursing administration, policy, and ethics from George Mason University.
Nicole Kong is associate vice provost and dean of Purdue Libraries and the School of Information Studies at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. A faculty member since 2012, Dr. Kong has served as associate dean for research at Purdue Libraries and the School of Information Studies for the past five years. Her interdisciplinary research centers on geo-spatial information science, data stewardship, and digital scholarship.
Dr. Kong received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Peking University in Beijing, China. She holds a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University.
Natalie Bayer was appointed dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Dr. Bayer, a professor of history, previously served as the college’s associate dean for student affairs. A scholar of European and Russian history, she is the author of Initiating the Millennium: The Avignon Society and Illuminism in Europe (Oxford University Press, 2020). Later this year, she is slated to publish a Russian-language edition of Initiating the Millennium, as well as a new monograph, Brotherhood and Fatherland: Freemasonry and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century Russia.
A graduate of Moscow State University in Russia, Dr. Bayer received her Ph.D. in European intellectual history from Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Huda Y. Zoghbi has been named the inaugural recipient of the Nancy Lurie Marks Prize for Autism Research from the Lurie Autism Institute, a joint initiative of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine, the healthcare system of the University of Pennsylvania. The award, which includes a $100,000 prize, is the institute’s highest honor recognizing transformative contributions to autism research.
Dr. Zoghbi is a distinguished service professor in the departments of molecular and human genetics, pediatrics, neuroscience, and neurology at Baylor College of Medicine, where she has taught for nearly four decades. She also serves as founding director of the Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s and is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
A pediatric neurologist and physician-scientist, Dr. Zoghbi has made extensive contributions to the understanding of the genetic and molecular basis of neurological disease, including autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, and Alzheimer’s disease. Her research integrates human genetics, animal models, and systems-level neuroscience to define how disruptions in gene regulation, neuronal maturation, and circuit function drive disease.
Born and raised in Lebanon, Dr. Zogbhi earned her undergraduate degree in biology from the American University of Beirut and began medical school there before ultimately transferring to Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. After receiving her medical degree, she completed residencies in pediatrics and pediatric neurology and a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular genetics at Baylor College of Medicine.
Amber Reed was promoted to assistant dean of strategic assessment and accreditation in the College of Education at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. For the past four years, Dr. Reed has served as director of the college’s office of strategic assessment and accreditation. Before coming to Purdue, she was dean of global education at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Dr. Reed earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in elementary education and a doctorate in language literacy with minors in early child education and curriculum and instruction from Indiana University.
Carrie Zelna was named vice president for student affairs at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. Dr. Zelna comes to her new appointment from North Carolina State University, where she served as senior associate vice chancellor in the division of academic and student affairs. Earlier in her tenure, she was the university’s associate vice provost/associate vice chancellor and director of assessment.
Dr. Zelna earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration and her master’s degree in counseling and human development from Radford University in Virginia. She holds a Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy analysis from North Carolina State University.
Heidi Norman has been appointed vice chancellor for the division of strategic partnerships and economic development at North Carolina A&T State University. Norman has a background in public sector leadership and experience with fostering collaborations between government, academia, and the private sector. Most recently, she served as chief information officer for the City of Pittsburgh.
Norman received her bachelor’s degree in political science and government from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and her master’s degree in information resources management from Syracuse University in New York.
Susan Chadwick was named director of financial aid at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Chadwick comes to her new position from The College Board, where she oversees the organization’s non-federal financial aid application, as well as the imaging and document processing system. Earlier, she was dean of financial aid at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.
Chadwick received her bachelor’s degree in psychology and religious studies from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, and her master’s degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania.
The Society for Cinema and Media Studies recently announced the recipients of its 2026 Awards. Among this year’s winners are four women teaching at universities in the United States.
Tupur Chatterjee, assistant professor of communication and Asian studies at Tulane University in New Orleans, won the Best First Book Award for her monograph, Projecting Desire: Media Architectures and Moviegoing in Urban India (NYU Press, 2025).
In her current research, Dr. Chatterjee is investigating the material and affective histories of domestic media technologies in South Asia during the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the politics of representation and platform governance in the contemporary streaming era. A former assistant professor at University College Dublin in Ireland, Dr. Chatterjee holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Delhi in India, a master’s degree in global media and communication from the University of London, and a Ph.D. in media studies from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jennifer Holt, professor and chair of the department of film and media studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, won the Katherine Singer Kovács Book Award for her latest book, Cloud Policy: A History of Regulating Pipelines, Platforms, and Data (MIT Press, 2024).
An expert on digital media policy and cloud infrastructures, Dr. Holt has consulted for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and presented research to the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C. In addition to Cloud Policy, Dr. Holt is the author of Empires of Entertainment: Media Industries and the Politics of Deregulation, 1980-1996 (Rutgers University Press, 2011) and the co-editor of several other books. A UC Santa Barbara faculty member since 2006, she holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism with minors in political science and economics from the University of Illinois, a master’s degree in critical and cultural studies of film and television from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. in critical studies of film, television and digital media from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Kelley Conway, professor of film at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the co-recipient of the Best Edited Collection Award for her book, Global Movie Magazine Networks (University of California Press, 2025). She shares the award with her co-editor, Eric Hoyt, the Kahl Family Professor of Media Production at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Throughout her career, Dr. Conway has conducted extensive research on the history of French film, filmmakers’ creative processes and concrete working conditions, the achievements and constraints of women in the film industry, the relationship between film and other areas, and theoretical and practical issues relating to national and transnational cinema. She is the author of two books: Chanteuse in the City (University of California Press, 2004) and Agnes Varda (University of Illinois Press, 2015). Dr. Conway earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Carleton College in Minnesota, a master’s degree in communication studies and film studies from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. in film and television from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Patrice Petro, the Presidential Chair in Media Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, won the Distinguished Career Achievement Award in honor of her significant, long-term contributions to the field.
At UC Santa Barbara, Dr. Petro serves as the Dick Wolf Director of the Carsey-Wolf Center, where she leads research, teaching, and public programming about media. Before her current role, she spent three decades on the faculty of the film studies program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is the author or editor of 14 books, including Uncanny Histories in Film and Media Studies (Rutgers University Press, 2022) and Aftershocks of the New: Feminism and Film History (Rutgers University Press, 2002). A past president of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Dr. Petro earned bachelor’s degrees in history and film studies and a master’s degree in modern European and American history from UC Santa Barbara. She received her Ph.D. in film history and theory from the University of Iowa.
The University of Maryland has appointed five scholars to its inaugural faculty cohort at the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM), the university’s hub for AI collaboration across campus.
“This inaugural cohort of core faculty marks a major milestone for AIM,” said Hal Daumé, AIM director and Volpi-Cupal Endowed Professor of Computer Science. “Individually, each conducts research that deeply impacts the practice of AI, through an interdisciplinary lens. And collectively, their expertise expands our capacity to pursue ambitious, interdisciplinary AI research, together with the AI expertise already on campus.”
Three members of the inaugural faculty cohort are women.
Ilaria Canavotto joined the department of philosophy in fall 2025 as an assistant professor, following several years as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Maryland and the University of Amsterdam. Her research lies at the intersection of logic, artificial intelligence, and law, with additional interests in social choice theory, game and decision theory, and metaphysics. Dr. Canavotto holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in philosophy from the Catholic University of Milan in Italy, a master’s degree in logic and philosophy of science from Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich in Germany, and a Ph.D. from the Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation at the University of Amsterdam.
Yulin Hswen is a new associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics. Before joining the Maryland faculty in January, Dr. Hswen was an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and a core faculty member of the Computational Precision Health Program at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research integrates large-scale internet-based data, including social media, search data, images and other unstructured sources, to understand how digital narratives, human behavior, and lived environments shape population health. Dr. Hswen received her doctorate in social and computational epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School.
Swati Srivastava is slated to join the University of Maryland faculty this summer as an associate professor of government and politics. She currently serves as an associate professor of political science and a university faculty scholar at Purdue University in Indiana. Dr. Srivastava also holds appointments as a faculty associate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and as a non-resident scholar in digital futures at New America. Her research focuses on private power in global governance and the emerging politics of Big Tech and AI. Dr. Srivastava earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and global studies from the University of California, Los Angles, her master’s degree in international relations from the University of Chicago, and her Ph.D. in political science from Northwestern University in Illinois.
Beverly Caffee Glenn, former dean of the School of Education at Howard University in Washington, D.C., passed away on December 24, 2025. She was 77 years old.
Dr. Glenn received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Morgan State University, located in her hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. She earned her master’s degree in education from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and her doctorate in education and social policy from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
Dr. Glenn’s career began as a mathematics teacher in the District of Columbia Public Schools’ Cardozo High School. She went on to teach at Highland Park Free School in Boston and serve as a staff education expert at Harvard’s Center for Law and Education. Dr. Glenn later held various positions at the National Education Association, including director of the human and civil rights department.
In the 1990s, Dr. Glenn became the first woman to serve as dean of Howard University’s School of Education, where she also taught as a tenured professor. In the early 2000s, she transferred to George Washington University, where she was executive director of the Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence, a research consortium of universities focused on improving student safety and educational outcomes.
