Ten Women Faculty Members Taking on New Assignments

Sangeeta G. Kamat, a professor in the department of educational policy, research and administration at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has been named an editor of the journal Philosophy and Theory in Higher Education.

Professor Kamat is a graduate of Sophia College in Bombay, India. She earned a master’s degree at the Tata Institute of Social Science in Bombay and a Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh.

Tatiana Kostova, who holds the Buck Mickel Chair and is a professor of international business at the University of South Carolina was named to a Carolina Distinguished Professorship.

Professor Kostova joined the faculty at the university in 1996. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Debra S. Munsell was named director of the new master of physician assistant studies program at the Meridian campus of Mississippi State University. She has been serving as director of the physician assistant program at the Louisiana State University Health Science Center in New Orleans.

Dr. Munsell is a graduate of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and a doctorate in health sciences from Nova Southeastern University.

Ayanna Howard, a professor who holds the Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, was appointed to lead the university’s School of Interactive Computing. From 1993 to 2005, Dr. Howard was a senior robotics researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Dr. Howard is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Beate Brunow, an assistant professor of German at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, was appointed director of student affairs academic partnerships and initiatives at the University of Georgia.

Dr. Brunow is a native of Germany. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Wyoming and a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University.

Christine M. Reed, a professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, was named interim director of the university’s Center for Urban Sustainability. She joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 1982.

Dr. Reed is a graduate of Connecticut College, where she majored in government. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science from Brown University.

Lisa Rowe Fraustino was appointed director of the graduate programs in children’s literature at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. She has been serving as a professor in the English department at Eastern Connecticut State University.

An award-winning author of children’s books, Professor Fraustino holds a Ph.D. in English literature from Binghamton University in New York.

Amy Villarejo, a professor of performing and media arts at Cornell University in Ithaca, new York, was appointed as the inaugural faculty director of the Milstein Program in Technology and Humanity. A member of the Cornell faculty since 1997, Professor Villarejo has served as chair of the department of performing and media arts and as director of the Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies program.

Professor Villarejo is the author of Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire (Duke University Press, 2003) and Ethereal Queer: Television, Historicity, Desire (Duke University Press, 2014).

Coralynn Davis, a professor of women’s and gender studies at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, was named the inaugural faculty director for civic engagement at the university. Dr. Davis has served on the Bucknell University faculty for 18 years. She is the author of Maithil Women’s Tales: Storytelling on the Nepal-India Border (University of Illinois Press, 2014).

Dr. Davis is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University.

Cynthia L. Pickett, associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, was given the added duties as associate vice provost for faculty equity, and inclusion. Dr. Pickett joined the faculty at the university in 2004. Earlier, she taught at the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago.

Dr. Pickett is a graduate of Stanford University, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Ohio State University.