New Duties or Roles for Eleven Women Faculty Members at U.S. Universities

Eileen Hunt Botting, professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, has been given the added duties of director of merit scholarship programs at the university.

Dr. Botting is a graduate of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. She holds a degree in philosophy from the University of Cambridge in England and a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University.

Teresa Shellenbarger was named a Distinguished University Professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is a professor of nursing and allied health professions and coordinator of the Ph.D. program in nursing. Dr. Shellenbarger is the co-author of Clinical Teaching Strategies in Nursing (Springer, 4th Edition, 2014). She joined the faculty at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2004.

Dr. Shellenbarger is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University. She holds a master’s degree in nursing from Southern Connecticut State University and a Ph.D. in nursing from Widener University in Pennsylvania.

Anne Gregory was appointed director of the School of Education and Counseling at Purdue University Northwest in Hammond, Indiana. She has been serving as professor and chair of the department of literacy and elementary education at Northern Illinois University.

Dr. Gregory is a graduate of Purdue University, where she majored in elementary education. She holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from Purdue University.

Bettina Aptheker was named as the inaugural holder of the Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation Presidential Chair for Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a professor of feminist studies at the university. Professor Aptheker is the author of several books including Intimate Politics: How I Grew Up Red, Fought for Free Speech and Became A Feminist Rebel (Seal Press, 2006).

In 1987, Professor Aptheker became the first tenure-track faculty member in the women’s studies program at the university. She holds a Ph.D. in the history of consciousness from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Kristen Poole was appointed the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of English Renaissance Literature at the University of Delaware. She also serves as interim director of the undergraduate research program at the university. Her latest book is Supernatural Environments in Shakespeare’s England: Spaces of Demonism, Divinity, and Drama (Cambridge University Press, 2011).

Professor Poole, who joined the faculty at the University of Delaware in 1996, is a graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Rachel L. Swarns, a correspondent for The New York Times, will join the faculty of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University at the rank of associate professor. She will begin teaching in the fall of 2018.

Swarms is the author of American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama (Amistad Press, 2012). She is a summa cum laude graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she majored in Spanish. She holds a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Kent in England.

Susan DiGiovanni, a professor in the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, was given the added duties as associate dean for graduate medical education. She joined the faculty at the medical school in 1995.

Dr. DiGiovanni earned her medical degree at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1984.

Nadia White, an associate professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Montana, has been given the added duties of director of the graduate program in environmental science and natural resources journalism. She joined the faculty at the university in 2007.

White graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a concentration in Asian literature. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from the Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Norma Saldivar was appointed chair of the department of theatre at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She was executive director of the Arts Institute and professor of theatre at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Professor Saldivar holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in acting from Illinois Wesleyan University and a master of fine arts degree in theatre directing from the University of Illinois.

Jennifer Hamer, a professor of American studies at the University of Kansas, was named vice provost for diversity and equity at the university. She joined the faculty at the university in 2012. She is the author of  Abandoned in the Heartland:  Work, Family, and Living in East St. Louis (University of California Press, 2011).

Dr. Hamer is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio. She earned a master’s degree at Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Texas.

Becky Lutte, an assistant professor in the Aviation Institute at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, was named chair-elect of the Section on Transportation Policy and Administration of the American Society for Public Administration.

Dr. Lutte is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She holds master of public administration degree and a Ph.D. in public administration with a specialization in aviation from the University of Nebraska-Omaha.