University of Rochester Appoints Six Women to Endowed Professorships

The University of Rochester in New York has announced the appointment of six women to endowed professorships.

Amy Blatt was appointed the William L. Morgan, Jr. Professor in Medicine. Her interests include learner assessment, addressing bias in the clinical learning environment, and the transition from undergraduate to graduate medical education. Dr. Blatt received her medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania and completed her internship and residency at the University of Rochester.

Lisa Kitko, the dean of the School of Nursing, was named the Independence Foundation Chair in Nursing Education. She was named dean of Rochester’s School of Nursing in 2022 after serving as associate dean for graduate education and director of the Ph.D. program at the Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Kito is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in nursing from Pennsylvania State University.

Ellen Matson was named the Marshall D. Gates, Jr. Professor of Chemistry. Her lab focuses on using a synthetic inorganic chemistry perspective to address current global issues related to energy storage and production. Dr. Matson is a graduate of Boston University, where she majored in chemistry and science education. She holds a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Jeanine Miklos-Thal was appointed the Fred H. Gowen Professor of Economics & Management. Her research interests include cartel pricing, pricing strategies in intermediate-goods markets, the impact of various marketing strategies on consumer quality perceptions, and reputational incentives in labor markets. Prior to joining the University of Rochester in 2009, she was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Mannheim in Germany. Dr. Miklos-Thal holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Toulouse School of Economics in France.

Laurie Steiner was appointed as the Lindsey Distinguished Professor for Pediatric Research. Dr. Steiner’s laboratory studies how specific DNA sequences, DNA binding proteins, and chromatin structure interact during normal erythropoiesis. She earned her medical degree at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York and completed her residency at Yale University.

Holly Watkins, a professor of musicology at the Eastman School of Music, has been appointed as a Minehan Family Professor. Her current research and teaching interests center on Romanticism, the aesthetics and philosophy of music, ecocriticism, and posthumanism. She is the author of Musical Vitalities: Ventures in a Biotic Aesthetic of Music (University of Chicago Press, 2018). Dr. Watkins holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and a master’s degree in musicology from the University of Virginia. She earned a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of California, Berkeley.