Seven Women Faculty Members Who Are Taking on New Assignments

Moni (Jasmine) Guo will be a new assistant professor of commercial music production at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, effective August 15. Guo is a classical pianist and composer who is currently focused on scoring for visual media arts. Born in China, Guo began studying music at the age of 3.

Guo pursued piano and composition studies at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and Rice University in Houston. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in composition at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Ella Atkins has been appointed head of the department of aerospace and ocean engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, effective August 1. She has been serving as a professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan, where she directed the Autonomous Aerospace Systems Lab and until 2020 served as associate director of the university’s Robotics Institute.

A native of West Virginia, Dr. Atkins earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan.

Ju Yon Kim was named a Harvard College Professor. The five-year professorships provide support for professional development, in the form of research or scholarly activities and a semester of paid leave or a summer salary. She is a professor of English at the university and has been on the faculty since 2011. Professor Kim is the author of The Racial Mundane: Asian American Performance and the Embodied Everyday (New York University Press, 2015).

Dr. Kim is a graduate of Yale University, where she majored in English. She holds a Ph.D. in modern thought and literature from Stanford University.

Alison Harmon, dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Development at Montana State University, was named interim vice president of research and economic development at the university. Dr. Harmon joined the faculty in 2014 after teaching at Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Harmon is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she majored in biology. She earned a master’s degree in forest resources and sociology and a Ph.D. in nutrition from Pennsylvania State University.

Tiffiny Tung, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor and chair of the department of anthropology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, was given the added duties of associate provost for doctoral programs. Dr. Tung is the author of Violence, Ritual, and the Wari Empire: A Social Bioarchaeology of Imperialism in the Ancient Andes (University Press of Florida, 2012).

Dr. Tung earned a Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jessie Juarez has been named the new director of South Dakota State University’s Professional Program in Veterinary Medicine. She was serving as assistant director since 2020. Earlier, Dr. Juarez was a clinical assistant professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University.

Dr. Juarez holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctor of veterinary medicine degrees from Iowa State University.

Devon Brenner, a professor in the department of curriculum and instruction and assistant vice president for outreach and initiatives in the Office of Research and Economic Development at Mississippi State University, has been given the added duties of director of the university’s Social Science Research Center. Dr. Brenner has been on the faculty at the university since 1999.

Dr. Brenner holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a doctorate in curriculum, teaching, and educational policy from Michigan State University.