Oregon State University Adds 28 Women to Its Faculty

Oregon State University in Corvallis has a record number of students on campus this semester. To meet this need the university has hired 80 new faculty members. There are 28 new women on the OSU faculty.

(L to R) Kathy Becker-Blease, SueAnn I. Bottoms, Jeewon Cho, Lisa Eiler, Natalia Fernandez, Meghan Freeman, Turner Goins, Alison Johnston, Molly Kile, Laurel Kincl, Ravina Kullar, Teri Lewis, Carolyn Mendez-Luck, Sarah Nemanic, Michelle Odden, Kara Ritzheimer, Pauline Schilpzand, Mehra Shirazi, Aleksandra E. Sikora, Amy Stokes, Jennifer Sykes, Rebecca Vega-Thurber, Charlotte Wickham, Siew Sun Wong, and Bin Zhu

Here are brief profiles of the new women faculty members.

Kathy Becker-Blease graduated in 2002 from the University of Oregon with a degree in developmental psychology. Before joining Oregon State University, Dr. Becker-Blease taught at Washington State University Vancouver.

SueAnn I. Bottoms has joined the faculty of the College of Education. Before coming to OSU she worked as a biologist for the U.S. Forest Service.

Jeewon Cho is an assistant professor in the College of Business. She earned her Ph.D. in organizational behavior at the School of Management at State University of New York at Buffalo.

Elaine Cozzi earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics from the University of Virginia. She was awarded a Ph.D. in mathematics in 2007 from the University of Texas at Austin. She was a postdoctoral associate in the Center for Nonlinear Analysis at Carnegie Mellon University and was a visiting professor position in the department of mathematics at Drexel University.

Lisa Eiler is an assistant professor of accounting in the College of Business. She spent two years on the faculty at California State University Fullerton prior to coming to OSU.  She earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Oregon.

Natalia Fernandez was appointed Oregon Multicultural Librarian. She received both her bachelor’s degree in art history and Spanish literature and her master’s degree in information resources and library science from the University of Arizona.

Meghan Freeman recently received the Ph.D. in English from Cornell University. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Williams College, and has studied abroad at Oxford University.

Turner Goins is an associate professor of gerontology in the School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences. She completed her master’s degree and Ph.D. in gerontology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She held a post-doctoral research fellowship in gerontology and epidemiology at Duke University Medical Center. She spent 13 years in the department of community medicine and the Center on Aging at West Virginia University’s School of Medicine.

Alison Johnston, a recent graduate of the London School of Economics where she did research on European political economy, has joined the faculty of the department of economics.  She completed her undergraduate degree in economics at the University of Washington.

Molly Kile is a new assistant professor of environment, safety and health. She holds a doctorate from the School of Public Health at Harvard University. Before coming to OSU, she was a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Laurel Kincl is an assistant professor of environment, safety and health. She holds a Ph.D. in occupational safety and ergonomics from the University of Cincinnati. Before joining OSU, she was a research fellow at the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology in Barcelona, Spain.

Ravina Kullar comes to OSU from her Fellowship in Infectious Diseases Outcomes Pharmacotherapy at Wayne State University. Dr. Kullar received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Southern Nevada.

Teri Lewis received her Ph.D. at the University of Oregon in 1998. Dr. Lewis is a new assistant professor teaching undergraduate and graduate level psychology courses.

Carolyn Mendez-Luck is assistant professor of human development and family sciences in the School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences. She completed her Ph.D. in public health at UCLA. Prior to joining OSU, she was a faculty associate with the UCLA Health Policy Research Center.

Sarah Nemanic is a graduate of the University of California at San Diego, with a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. She holds a doctorate in veterinary medicine from UC Davis. She recently completed her Diagnostic Imaging Residency at the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

Michelle Odden is an assistant professor of Epidemiology. She holds a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley. Before joining OSU, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at San Francisco.

Viviana Pérez received her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from the medical school of the University of Chile. She then conducted postdoctoral work at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

Kara Ritzheimer completed her Ph.D. in modern European history at Binghamton University in 2007.  She has been a visiting assistant professor in the history department at OSU since 2007.

Pauline Schilpzand is an assistant professor of project management in the College of Business. She earned a Ph.D. in organization behavior at the University of Florida. She was an assistant professor at the United States Military Academy.

Mehra Shirazi, who earned a Ph.D. in public health from OSU in 2006, joined the Women Studies faculty in the School of Language, Culture, and Society.

Aleksandra E. Sikora pursued graduate studies in her native Poland at the University of Gdansk, and at the University of Michigan. She recently completed post-doctoral studies in the department of microbiology and immunology at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Amy Stokes is an assistant professor of marketing in the College of Business. Her Ph.D. in marketing was recently earned from University of Arkansas.

Jennifer Sykes is a 2011 Ph.D. graduate of Harvard University. She completed a Master’s degree in social policy and social work at the University of York in Great Britain.

Rebecca Vega-Thurber received her Ph.D. at Stanford University and received a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship to study marine microbial ecology at San Diego State University.

Charlotte Wickham is a 2011 statistics graduate from the University of California, Berkeley.  She completed her undergraduate work at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Siew Sun Wong is an assistant professor and extension nutrition specialist in extension family and community Health. Dr. Wong earned her doctorate in nutrition and food sciences with emphases on epidemiology and community nutrition at Utah State University.

Bin Zhu is an assistant professor of business information systems in the College of Business. Prior to OSU she was an assistant professor at Boston University. She earned her Ph.D. in management information systems from the University of Arizona.