New Assignments for Five Women Faculty Members at Universities

Sandra Ryeom has been appointed associate dean for postdoctoral affairs and new master’s degree programs at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York City. Dr. Ryeom will join the faculty as an associate professor of surgical sciences. Dr. Ryeom was an associate professor of cancer biology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Earlier, she was an assistant professor at Harvard Medical Schools.

Dr. Ryeom is a graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She holds a Ph.D. in cell biology and genetics from Cornell University.

Dana Franz, a professor in the College of Education at Mississippi State University, has been promoted to director of academic quality in the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness. She had been serving as an associate vice president intern in the Office of the Provost. She joined the faculty at the university in 2002.

Dr. Franz holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics education and special education and a master’s degree in school administration from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She earned a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Texas A&M University.

Melissa Bilec, the William Kepler Whiteford Professor of civil and environmental engineering in the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, was appointed director of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation at the university.

Dr. Bilec is a triple-alumna of the University of Pittsburgh, having earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and Ph.D. from the Swanson School of Engineering.

D’Jaris Coles-White, has joined the faculty at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo as a Presidential Innovation Professor in the department of speech, language, and hearing sciences. She was a professor at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Her research focuses on multicultural issues in speech disorders and the development of social language skills in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Dr. Coles-White earned a bachelor’s degree in speech and hearing sciences from Columbia College in South Carolina. She holds a master’s degree in speech pathology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in communication disorders from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Mary McKay, the Neidorff Family and Centene Corporation Dean of the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, has been appointed vice provost of interdisciplinary initiatives at the university, effective January 1. She was named dean of the Brown School in 2016. Her research is focused on meeting the mental health and health prevention needs of youth and families impacted by poverty.

Dr. McKay holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from Loyola University in Chicago. She earned a Ph.D. in social work at the University of Illinois at Chicago.