Nine Women Scholars Who Are Taking on New University Duties

Mona Hanna-Attisha. the C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health at Michigan State University, was given the added duties of associate dean for public health at the university’s College of Human Medicine. An expert on the crisis involving the water supply in Flint, Michigan, Dr. Hanna-Attisha is the author of What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City (One World, 2018).

Dr. Hanna-Attisha holds a bachelor’s degree and a master of public health degree from the University of Michigan. She completed her medical degree at Michigan State University.

Edna Martinez has been named the associate vice president and administrator in charge of the California State University, San Bernardino’s Palm Desert Campus. She will also hold a tenured academic appointment in the university’s James R. Watson and Judy Rodriguez Watson College of Education. She was chair of the department of educational eeadership and foundations at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Dr. Martinez holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at El Paso. She earned a Ph.D. in educational leadership from Clemson University in South Carolina.

Ruth L. Okediji, the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and leading intellectual property law scholar, has been named the Oppenheimer Faculty Director of the Center for African Studies at the university. Her most recent book is Copyright Law in an Age of Limitations and Exceptions (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

Professor Okediji is a graduate of the University of Jos in Nigeria and holds a master’s degree and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School.

Linda Bloss-Baum, senior vice president of government relations and public policy at SoundExchange, a digital music collective based in Washington, D.C., will join the Kogod School of Business at American University. Bloss-Baum will serve as assistant program director in the Business and Entertainment Program and teach two undergraduate courses as a full-time faculty member.

Bloss-Baum is a graduate of American University and holds a juris doctorate from the Catholic University of America.

Felicia McGhee is joining the faculty and serving as associate dean of curriculum and student success at the School of Journalism & Graphic Communication at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. Most recently, she headed the communications department at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she taught journalism courses for more than 23 years.

Dr. McGhee is a native of Pontiac, Michigan, and holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Michigan. She earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a doctoral degree in communication and information sciences from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Jane Carlton, a biologist and leader in the field of comparative genomics, has joined the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. She was the Julius Silver, Roslyn S. Silver, and Enid Silver Winslow Professor in the department of biology and the School of Public Health at New York University.

Dr. Carlton holds a Ph.D. in microbial and eukaryotic genetics from the University of Edinboro in Scotland.

Winnie Tomeny is a new assistant professor of graphic design at the University of Louisiana Monroe. Prior to her appointment at ULM, Professor Tomeny held positions at the Kentucky College of Art and Design, Vargas University in Pembroke Pines, Florida, and Sullivan University in Louisville.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Tomeny holds a master of fine arts degree from Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.

Summer Perry is a new assistant professor in the department of teacher education, leadership & counseling at Columbus State University in Georgia. Her teaching will focus on school counseling, counseling skills, and counseling theory.

Perry earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Tuskegee University in Alabama. She holds two master’s degrees in school counseling from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and will soon complete a doctorate in counselor education and supervision at the University of Georgia.

Krista Mehari has joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of education and human development as an assistant professor of psychology and human development. Dr. Mehari was an assistant professor at the University of South Alabama. She is an expert on gun violence prevention.

Dr. Merari earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University.