Six Women Scholars Who Are Taking on New Academic Roles

Andrea Richa, a professor of computer science in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence at Arizona State University, has been named a President’s Professor. Professor Richa, who joined the faculty at the university in 1998, most recently has focused on developing the algorithmic foundations on what has been coined as programmable matter, through her work on self-organizing particle systems.

Dr. Richa is a graduate of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Eleni Pellazgu was named interim associate dean and interim chair of graduate nursing programs in the School of Health Studies of Berkeley College, which operates campuses in New York City and in New Jersey. She served as a faculty member at Walden University, Rutgers University, and Felician University, before joining the Berkeley College School of Health Studies in 2021.

Pellazgu is a graduate of Thomas Edison University in Trenton, New Jersey. She holds a master’s degree and is pursuing a Ph.D. in nursing at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Kirsten Pai Buick was appointed director of the Africana studies department at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Buick is a professor of art history, associate dean of equity and excellence, and special assistant to the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. She is the author of Child of the Fire: Mary Edmonia Lewis and the Problem of Art History’s Black and Indian Subject (Duke University Press, 2010).

Dr. Buick is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where she majored in history and Italian literature. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Michigan.

Fran Hagstrom has been appointed as interim associate dean for international education at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Hagstrom is an associate professor of communication sciences and disorders at the university. She is the former assistant dean for health within the College of Education and Health Professions.

Professor Hagstrom is a graduate of Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, where she majored in speech. She holds a master’s degree in speech from Saint Lous University, a master’s degree in language sciences from the University of Texas Health Science Center, and a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Clark Unversity in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Lisa A. Carey will serve as the inaugural director of the Triple Negative Breast Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the Richardson and Marilyn Jacobs Preyer Distinguished Professor in Breast Cancer Research at the university.

Dr. Carey earned her medical doctorate and completed her residency at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Jane Okech, currently associate dean for academic and faculty affairs and professor of counselor education in the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont, will be the next vice provost for faculty affairs at the university, effective July 1. She has taught at the University of Vermont since 2003.

Dr. Okech is a graduate of Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. She holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the United States International University-Africa and a Ph.D. in education and counseling from Idaho State University.