Three Academic Centers Get New Women Leaders

Jennifer L. Robinson was named director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration in the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah. She has been interim director of the center for the past year and has been on the university staff since 2005.

Dr. Robinson holds bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Utah. She is the co-author of Native Vote: American Indians, the Voting Rights Act, and the Right to Vote (Cambridge University Press, 2007) and the co-editor of the book, The Rise of the West in Presidential Elections (University of Utah Press, 2010).

Mahnaz Mahdavi was appointed as the first Ann F. Kaplan Director of the Center for Women & Financial Independence at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Dr. Mahdavi, who is a professor of economics at Smith, has led the center since its inception a decade ago. The new endowed directorship was established by a contribution from Goldman Sachs in honor of Ann Kaplan who sits on the company’s board of directors and is a Smith alumna and chair of the Circle Financial Group.

Dr. Mahdavi holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Nancy Morrow-Howell was named director of the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging at Washington University in St. Louis, effective January 1. She is the Ralph and Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work at the university. She is the co-editor of Productive Aging: Concepts and Challenges (Johns Hopkins University Press).

Dr. Morrow-Howell has been on the Washington University faculty since 1987. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.