Five Women Faculty Members Who Are Taking on New Roles in Higher Education

Celeste M. Nelson was named the Pomeroy and Betty Perry Smith Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University in New Jersey. She also serves as the director of the program in engineering biology. Professor Nelson joined the Princeton faculty in 2007 and was promoted to full professor in 2016.

Dr. Nelson holds bachelor’s degrees in biology and chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She earned a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Simone T.A. Phipps, an associate professor of management at Middle Georgia State University in Macon, was named an associate research fellow at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge in England.

Dr. Phipps is a graduate of Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, where she majored in management information science. She holds an MBA from Ohio University and a Ph.D. in human resource and leadership development from Louisiana State University.

Katy Strzepek was named director of the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning at Illinois State University, effective February 3. Dr. Strzepek is currently director of the Women and Gender Studies Program and WGS Resource Center at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa.

Dr. Strzepek received a bachelor’s degree in history at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. She earned a master’s degree in African history from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and a doctorate in higher education administration and foundations from Illinois State University.

Amie Grills, a professor of counseling psychology at Boston University, was given the added duties as associate dean for faculty affairs and research at the university’s Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. She has taught at Boston University since 2013 and was promoted to full professor earlier this year.

Professor Grills is a magna cum laude graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Virginia Tech.

Megan Goodwin is the new associate dean of the College of Education and Human Services at Central Michigan University. Dr. Goodwin has been acting and interim associate dean of the college since 2016. Previously, she was chair of the human environmental studies department at Central Michigan University.

Dr. Goodwin received a bachelor’s degree in home economics from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She earned master’s and doctoral degrees in family and child development from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg.