Six Women Faculty Members Who Are Taking on New Assignments at Universities

Kelly Hammond, an associate professor in the department of history at the University of Arkansas, was given the added duties of associate director of international and global studies. Dr. Hammond joined the faculty at the university in 2015. She is the author of China’s Muslims and Japan’s Empire: Centering Islam in World War II (University of North Carolina Press, 2020).

Dr. Hammond is a graduate of Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec. She holds a master’s degree in East Asian history from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, and a Ph.D. in East Asian history from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Krystyn J. Van Vliet was appointed professor of engineering and vice president for research and innovation at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, effective February 1. She is now serving as associate provost and associate vice president for research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been on the faculty at MIT since 2004.

Dr. Van Vliet is s graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she majored in materials science and engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from MIT.

Dawn Bragg has been appointed professor in the department of medical education and associate dean for student affairs at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Since 2018, she has served as dean of medical student affairs at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine. Earlier, Dr. Bragg was associate dean for student inclusion and academic enrichment and an associate dean for student affairs/diversity at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

A native of Jamaica, Bragg completed her undergraduate education at Florida A&M University and received a master’s degree in dairy science and a doctoral degree in educational evaluation from the University of Illinois.

Amy E. Keating, the Jay A. Stein Professor of Biology and a professor of biological engineering, has been named the new head of the department of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She joined the MIT faculty in 2002. Dr. Keating’s research focuses on interaction properties of proteins encoded in their sequences and structures.

Dr. Keating is a graduate of Harvard University, where she majored in physics. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Tiffany Steele is a new assistant professor in educational leadership at the University of Rochester in New York. She was an assistant professor in the higher education department at Oakland University in Michigan. Her research centers on the lived experiences of Black girls and women in education, specifically their transition from high school to college.

Dr. Steele is a graduate of the University of Michigan. She earned a Ph.D. in higher education and student affairs from Ohio State University.

Deb Welsh, professor and head of the department of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee, was named a Chancellor’s Professor. She focuses her research on the development of romantic relationships and their impact on the functioning of adolescents, young adults, and older adults.

Dr. Welsh received her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Massachusetts.