New Assignments for Six Women Faculty Members at Colleges and Universities

Kecia Williams Smith was hired as an assistant professor in the department of accounting and information systems at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg. She is a former senior executive for the Deloitte accounting firm.

Dr. Smith is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. She earned a Ph.D. in 2016 at Texas A&M University.

Susan Ross, a professor of sociology at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, has been given the added duties as associate provost for experimental learning. In this role she will direct the college’s Center for Enhanced Academic Experiences.

Dr. Ross joined the faculty at Lycoming College in 1998. She is a graduate of Millersville University in Pennsylvania and earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of New Hampshire.

Gaynor Yancey was named a Master Teacher at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The designation is the university’s highest rank for teaching faculty. Dr. Yancey joined the faculty in the School of Social Work at Baylor in 1999. She is the director of the Center for Family and Community Ministries at the university.

Dr. Yancey is a graduate of East Texas Baptist University in Marshall. She holds a master’s degree in religion education from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and a master of social work degree from Temple University in Philadelphia. Dr. Yancey earned a doctorate in social work from the University of Pennsylvania.

Anna Engelsone was appointed an assistant professor of mathematics and computer science at Maryville College in Tennessee. She was a senior operations research scientist for JDA Software Inc.

Dr. Englesone holds a Ph.D. in operations research from North Carolina State University.

Lori A. Troxel, associate professor of practice of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, has been given the added duties as director of the Design as an Immersive Vanderbilt Experience (DIVE) initiative. The program, scheduled to launch in 2017, will seek innovative solutions to problems on campus and in the surrounding community.

Dr. Troxel is a graduate of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Vanderbilt University.

Claudia Fishbach-Teschl, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Cornell University, was named co-director of the new Center on the Physics of Cancer Metabolism at the university. The center will seek answers to how breast cancer develops and spreads.

Dr. Fishbach-Teschl holds a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical technology from the University of Regensburg in Germany and a master’s degree in pharmacy from the Ludwigs-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany.