Ten Women Taking on New Teaching Roles at Colleges and Universities

Fei-Fei Li, an associate professor of computer science and director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford University in California, has been given the additional responsibility of directing the new SAIL-Toyota Center for Artificial Intelligence Research. The new center will work to develop new artificial technology systems with a goal of reducing traffic casualties and assisting drivers in various ways. Toyota is supporting the effort with a $25 million grant.

Professor Li is a graduate of Princeton University in New Jersey, where she majored in physics. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Janelle Knox-Hayes was named the Lister Brothers Associate Professor of Economic Geography and Planning in the department of urban studies and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dr. Knox-Hayes is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she majored in international affairs, ecology, and Japanese language and civilizations. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in economic geography from the University of Oxford in England.

H. Katherine Guthrie was appointed the Mansfield Associate Professor of Business at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She joined the faculty at the college in 2006.

Dr. Guthrie is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, where she double majored in economics and international relations. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.

Linda Nagel was named chair of the department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship at Colorado State University. She was a professor of forest resources and director of operations for the Cloquet Forestry Center and the Hubachek Wilderness Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

Professor Nagel is a graduate of South Dakota State University. She holds a master’s degree from Washington State University and a Ph.D. in forestry from the University of Montana.

Mumba Mumba is a new associate professor of speech at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois. She taught for three years as a visiting assistant professor of communication and rhetorical studies at Illinois College in Jacksonville.

Dr. Mumba is a graduate of the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, where she majored in physiotherapy. She holds a master’s degree in international affairs and a Ph.D. in communication studies from Ohio University in Athens.

Mary McClung has been appointed to the Mabel Devries Tanner Endowed Professorship in Theatre in the School of Theatre and Dance at West Virginia University. She has been on the faculty at the university since 2007 as a professor of costume design.

Professor McClung is a graduate of Alfred University in New York. She holds a master of fine arts degree from West Virginia University.

Eliza Allen is a new assistant professor of elementary education at the University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on critical language and literacy practices of culturally and linguistically diverse children.

Dr. Allen is a graduate of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Tennessee and a Ph.D. from Georgia State University.

Clea Hupp was appointed chair of the department of history at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock. She has been on the faculty at the university since 2006 and currently serves as an associate professor of history.

Dr. Hupp holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Arkansas.

Susan Lurie, an associate professor of history at Rice University in Houston, Texas, is taking on the added responsibilities of director of the university’s Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.

Professor Lurie is the author of Unsettled Subjects: Restoring Feminist Politics to Poststructuralist Critique (Duke University Press, 1997). She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kafi D. Kumasi was promoted to associate professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Wayne State University in Detroit. She also was awarded tenure. Dr. Kumasi has been on the Wayne State University faculty since 2009.

Dr. Kumasi is a graduate of the University of Michigan. She holds a master of library and information science degree from Wayne State University and a doctorate in curriculum studies from Indiana University.