Shelly Landreth is a new associate professor and chair of education in the College of Education at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. She comes to her new position from the University of Texas at Permian Basin, where she was an associate professor and chair of teacher preparation. Before transitioning her career to higher education, Dr. Landreth spent two decades as a teacher, librarian, and administrator in Texas public schools.
Dr. Landreth earned her bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in reading, a master of library science degree, and a doctorate in literacy, all from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.
Alicia Allen has been named the inaugural director of the National Center for Opioid Research and Clinical Efficacy at the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. A behavioral epidemiologist, she previously taught at the University of Arizona, the University of Minnesota, and the University of St. Thomas.
Dr. Allen holds a bachelor’s degree in health and wellness, a master of public health degree in community health education, and a Ph.D. in social and behavioral epidemiology, all from the University of Minnesota.
Renata Engel has accepted a three-year appointment as vice president for commonwealth campuses at Pennsylvania State University. She has served in the role on an interim basis since May. A Penn State faculty member since 1990, she currently teaches as a professor of engineering mechanics and engineering design. Prior to assuming her interim role, she was vice provost for online education.
Dr. Engel is an alumna of Penn State, where she majored in engineering science. She holds a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from the University of South Florida.
Felicity Harley is slated to join the faculty full-time at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in the 2026-2027 academic year. She currently teaches as a lecturer in the history of art at Yale Divinity School. As a scholar, her work centers on the origins and development of Christian iconography within the visual culture of Roman late antiquity.
Dr. Harley earned her bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Adelaide in Australia.
Xie Chen has been named director of the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology. A Caltech faculty member since 2014, she currently holds the title of Eddleman Professor of Theoretical Physics. Her research centers on novel phases and phase transitions in quantum condensed matter systems.
Dr. Chen holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Tsinghua University in China and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Melinda Simon is a new associate professor in the department of biomedical engineering at the University of Cincinnati. She previously taught as an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at San José State University in California. Her scholarly interests include polymeric biomaterials, droplet microfluidics, composite bioinks, accessibility of microfabrication and microfluidic technology, and lab development.
Dr. Simon is an alumna of the University of Cincinnati, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D., both in biomedical engineering, from the University of California, Davis.
Lauren Prather was recently named co-director of the Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections at the University of California, San Diego. She is an associate professor of political science in the university’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. Her work focuses on the domestic determinants of foreign policy, U.S. foreign policy, democracy promotion and democratization, Middle East politics, and experimental methods.
Dr. Prather is a graduate of the University of Kansas, where she double-majored in political science and French. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University in California.
Anna Shusterman has been named a professor of psychology and the director of the Center for Toddler Development at Barnard College, a women’s college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. She previously taught as a tenured faculty member in the psychology department at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. A developmental psychologist, she studies cognitive development in children, exploring the relationship between language and conceptual development, particularly in the domains of spatial and numerical cognition.
Dr. Brown received her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Brown University. She completed her doctorate and post-doctoral fellowship in the Laboratory for Developmental Studies at Harvard University.