A Trio of Women Faculty Members Appointed to Endowed Chairs at American Universities

Norma Hafenstein was appointed to the Daniel L. Ritchie Endowed Chair in Gifted Education in the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver in Colorado. She is the founder of the Ricks Center for Gifted Education, a school for gifted children through grade eight that operates on the university’s campus.

Dr. Hafenstein is a graduate of Emporia State University in Kansas. She holds a master’s degree from Kansas State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Denver.

Jennifer Richeson was appointed the Philip R. Allen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She was the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Endowed Chair in psychology at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She also served as professor of African American studies at the university. Previously, she taught at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Dr. Richeson is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University.

Melissa M. Wilcox was named the Holstein Family and Community Endowed Chair in Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Wilcox was chair of the religion department and director of gender studies at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington. Professor Wilcox is the author of several books including Religion in Today’s World: Global Issues, Sociological Perspectives (Routledge, 2013).

Dr. Wilcox is a graduate of Stanford University, where she majored in biology. She earned a master’s degree in women’s studies in religion from the Claremont Graduate School and a Ph.D. in religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.