Three Women Faculty Members Named Chairs of Their Academic Departments

Sheila Ross has been promoted to chair of the electrical engineering and computer science department at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. She is an associate professor in the department.

Dr. Ross holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and applied and computational sciences from Marquette University in Milwaukee. She earned a master’s degree and a  Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

KMarie King was recently appointed to serve as the chair of the department of surgery at Albany Medical College, making her the first Black woman to sit at the helm of a surgery division at an academic health sciences center in the United States. Dr. King — who currently serves as chief of surgery and medical director for surgical quality at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and a professor at the Morehouse School of Medicine — has dedicated her career to advancing medical research surrounding pancreatic and liver cancers.

Dr. King is a graduate of St. Joseph’s College, where she majored in biology. She earned her medical degree at Washington University in St Louis and holds an MBA from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and a  master’s degree in biomedical sciences from the Mayo Clinic.

Michelle Baack was appointed chair of the department of pediatrics at the Sanford School of Medicine of the University of South Dakota. Since 2011, Dr. Baack has served as a neonatologist at Sanford Children’s Specialty Clinic and as a physician scientist at Sanford Research, both in Sioux Falls.

Dr. Baack is a graduate of South Dakota State University. She earned her medical degree at the University of South Dakota and completed her residency at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.