New Assignments for Ten Women Faculty Members in Higher Education

Lisa Berger, a professor of social work at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has been given the added duties as director of the Center for Urban Population Health, a collaboration between the university and Aurora Health Care Inc. Dr. Berger’s research focuses on issues of substance abuse. She joined the faculty at the university in 2005.

Dr. Berger is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She earned a master of social work degree and a Ph.D. in urban studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Dineo Khabele was appointed director of gynecologic oncology and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Kansas Health System. She was an associate professor at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Dr. Khabele earned a bachelor’s degree and a medical doctorate at Columbia University in New York City.

Amy Rodgers Smith, an assistant professor of physical therapy at the West Virginia University School of Medicine has been given the additional duties as the university’s first healthcare-focused musical therapist. She will conduct music therapy at the J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital and the WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital in Morgantown.

Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in music therapy from Ohio University and a master’s degree in music therapy from Colorado State University.

Cherlon Ussery, an assistant professor of linguistics at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, has been awarded tenure. She joined the faculty at the highly rated liberal arts college in 2010. Her current research has an emphasis on the Icelandic language.

Dr. Ussery is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she majored in political science and African American studies. She earned a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Lee Hall was hired to hold the Wyoming Excellence Chair in Adolescent Literacy in the department of secondary education at the University of Wyoming. Since 2011, she has been serving as an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Hall is a graduate of the University of South Florida in Tampa, where she majored in elementary education. She holds a master’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a Ph.D. in literacy from Michigan State University.

Lesley H. Curtis was named interim chair of the new department of population health sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine. She has been serving as director of the Center for Population Health Sciences.

Dr. Curtis also serves as the director of the Center for Pragmatic Health Systems Research in the Duke Clinical Research Institute. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Rochester.

Susan Marguiles was appointed to the Wallace H. Coulter Chair of the department of biomedical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. She has been serving as a professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined the faculty there in 1993.

Dr. Marguiles is a graduate of Princeton University in New Jersey, where she majored in mechanical and aerospace engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Kami Chavis, professor of law, associate dean of research and public engagement, and director of the Criminal Justice Program at the Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has been given the added duties of associate provost for academic initiatives at the university. Professor Simmons has been on the law school’s faculty since 2006.

Professor Chavis is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After graduation from Harvard Law School, Professor Simmons practiced law in Washington and later was an assistant United States Attorney.

Susan Tsu, a professor of design in the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, was named University Professor, the highest faculty designation at the university.

Professor Tsu holds a bachelor of fine arts degree and a master of fine arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University.

Ingrid M. Nembhard was named the Ira Vaughn Hiscock Associate Professor of Public Health at Yale University. She also serves as an associate professor in the Yale School of Management and is the associate director of the Health Care Management Program at Yale.

Dr. Nembhard is a graduate of Yale University. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in health policy and management from Harvard University.