Significant Appointments of Women to Administrative and Faculty Positions

Kenya Taylor, dean of graduate studies and research at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, was appointed associate vice chancellor for academic and student affairs at the university. She has served on the faculty at the university since 1996. Previously she taught in the department of communications disorders at Texas Christian University.

Dr. Taylor holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Baylor University and an educational doctorate from the University of Tennessee.

Keley Smith-Keller was appointed director of the Career Center at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. She has been serving as an administrator at Western Iowa Tech Community College in Sioux City. She previously was director of career development at Northern Kentucky University.

Dr. Smith-Keller is a graduate of Iowa State University. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of South Dakota.

Julia K. Hodges is the new associate vice president for administrative services at Mississippi State University. She has served on the faculty at Mississippi State for 27 years, most recently as professor of computer science and engineering.

Dr. Hodges earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Mississippi State and a Ph.D. from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

Laureen L. Hill was named chair of the department of anesthesiology at the Emory University School of Medicine. She will begin her new duties on August 1. Dr. Hill has been serving as vice chair of the department and professor of anesthesiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

A graduate of California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, Dr. Hill received her medical training at the University of California at Davis. She also holds an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Linda Stewart Kroon was named director of the Women’s Resource and Action Center at the University of Iowa. She has been an administrator at the university since 1985.

Kroon is a graduate of Northwestern College and holds a master’s degree from the University of Iowa.

Jeanette M. Boxhill, senior lecturer of philosophy and director of the Parr Center for Ethics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was named chair of the faculty at the university. She has been on the faculty at Chapel Hill since 1985. She is the editor of Sports Ethics: An Anthology and Issues in Race and Gender.

Dr. Boxhill holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and master’s and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy, all from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Emily E. Scida, associate professor of Spanish at the University of Virginia, was named the Daniels Family National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professor at the university.

Dr. Scida is a graduate of Georgetown University. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Danita Nias was appointed executive director of the University of Florida Alumni Association, effective July 1. Currently, she is assistant vice president for development and alumni relations at the University of Maryland, College Park.

A graduate of the University of Maryland, Nias holds a master’s degree from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.