New Faculty Posts at Leading Universities for Six Women

Margaret R. Karagas was named chair of the new department of epidemiology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Dr. Karagas has been on the faculty at Dartmouth since 1990.

Dr. Karagas earned a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of Washington.

Jennifer Alexander was named a permanent professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The appointment means that she will serve as chair of the economics and geosciences departments until her retirement. Alexander holds the rank of colonel.

Dr. Alexander is a graduate of the University of Arizona, where she majored in atmospheric science. She holds a master’s degree from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in meteorology from the University of Utah.

Naomi Halas, the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University in Houston, was named director of the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at the university. Professor Halas joined the faculty at Rice University in 1990.

Professor Halas is a graduate of La Salle College. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in physics from Bryn Mawr College.

Constance Iloh was hired as an assistant professor of higher education at the School of Education of the University of California, Irvine. She is currently completing work on a Ph.D. at the Rossier School of Education of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and will take on her new faculty role on July 1.

Iloh is a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree in business management from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Nancy Nelson Hodges was named to the Burlington Industries Excellence Professorship at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She joined the faculty at the university in 1998 and in 2014 was named chair of the department of consumer, apparel, and retail studies.

Dr. Hodges is the associate editor of the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Deepa Bhojwani was named associate professor in the department of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She will also be the director of the leukemia/lymphoma program at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. Since 2008, she has worked at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.

Dr. Bhojwani is a graduate of St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, India and earned her medical degree at the M.S. Ramaiah Medical College in Bangalore, India.