A Quartet of Women Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Dean Positions

Kathleen Guzman was named dean of the College of Law at the University of Oklahoma. She had served as interim dean since 2019. She is the first woman to be fully appointed and serve in this capacity at the law school. Dean Guzman also holds the Fenelon Boesche Chair in Law.

Professor Guzman earned a bachelor’s degree and a juris doctorate with highest honors from the University of Arkansas. In law school, she served as articles editor for the Arkansas Law Review. She also holds a master’s degree in law from Yale University.

Kymberly Pinder, an internationally recognized scholar of race, representation, and murals, has been appointed the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Dean of the Yale School of Art. Dr. Pinder has been serving as acting president of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Earlier, she was dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico. She will begin her new role on July 1.

Dr. Pinder, the author of Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago (Univerity of Illinois Press, 2016), is a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in art history at Yale University.

Mary Ellen Poole has been named Carnegie Mellon University’s Stanley and Marcia Gumberg Dean of the College of Fine Arts. She also will hold a faculty appointment as a professor of music. Professor Poole begins her new role August 1. Professor Poole, a well-regarded musicologist, currently serves as the director of the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music in the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin, a post she has held since June 2014.

Dr. Poole holds degrees in flute performance from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She earned a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Illinois.

Henrietta Williams Pichon, interim dean of New Mexico State University’s College of Education, has been named interim dean of the new College of Health, Education and Social Transformation effective July 1. She has led the College of Education since last year.

Dr. Pichon holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in secondary English education from Louisiana Tech. She earned a Ph.D. in higher education administration at the University of New Orleans.