Five Women Scholars Named to Dean Posts at Colleges and Universities

Paula Groves Price will be the next dean of the College of Education at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. She currently serves as professor of cultural studies and social thought in education and associate dean for diversity and international engagement at Washington State University. She is president-elect of the American Educational Studies Association.

Dr. Price holds a dual bachelor’s degree in social welfare and interdisciplinary field studies with a minor in African-American studies from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in social foundations of education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Nancy Songer has accepted an offer to serve as dean of the College of Education at the University of Utah. Professor Songer is the former dean of the School of Education at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Earlier in her career, she taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Colorado. Dr. Songer has served as chair of a National Academy of Sciences’ Engineering and Medicine Committee. She is a fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Songer earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of California, Davis. She holds a master’s degree in molecular/developmental biology from Tufts University in Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in science education and learning technologies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Baishakhi Taylor was appointed the dean of the college and vice president for campus life at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Currently, she is vice president for student affairs, dean of students, and an assistant professor in gender, sexuality and feminist studies at Middlebury College in Vermont. Dr. Taylor will begin her new job on July 1.

Dr. Taylor holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in comparative literature from Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India. She earned a master’s degree in women’s studies from the University of Northern Iowa and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Kentucky.

Andrea Goldsmith, an expert and entrepreneur in wireless systems, has been appointed dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University in New Jersey, effective September 1. Currently, she is the Stephen Harris Professor of Engineering and professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University in California. Before joining the Stanford faculty in 1999, Professor Goldsmith taught at the California Institute of Technology.

Dr. Goldsmith received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Susan T. Gooden has been named dean of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Gooden has served as interim dean at the Wilder School since May 2018. She joined the faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2004.  Professor Gooden is the author of Race and Social Equity: A Nervous Area of Government (Routledge, 2014).

Dr. Gooden holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in political science from Virginia Tech. She earned a Ph.D. in political science at Syracuse University in New York.