Four Women Scholars Who Are Taking on New Roles at Universities

Mary E. Graham, a professor in the department of sport management at Syracuse University in New York, has been named associate dean of faculty affairs for Falk College at the university, effective January 2. Dr. Graham joined the Falk College faculty in 2012 and is also an affiliated faculty member in the Whitman School of Management. She teaches applied courses in organizational behavior and strategic human resource management, as well as diversity in sport organizations.

Professor Graham has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Le Moyne College in Syracuse. She earned both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University.

Heather Congdon was appointed director of the Center for Interprofessional Education at the University of Maryland Baltimore. She is a professor in the department of practice, sciences, and health outcomes research at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.

Dr. Congdon received her doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed a pharmacy practice residency with an emphasis in community care from the University of Maryland.

Tracey Sharpley-Whiting, who holds the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities and is a professor of African American and diaspora studies and French at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, is taking on the added duties of vice provost of global engagement. Professor Sharpley-Whiting is the author of many books including Pimps Up, Ho’s Down: Hip Hop’s Hold on Young Black Women (New York University Press, 2007), Black Venus: Sexualized Savages, Primal Fears, and Primitive Narratives in French (Duke University Press, 2009), Bricktop’s Paris: African American Women in Paris Between the Two World Wars (State University of New York Press, 2015).

Dr. Sharpley-Whiting is a graduate of the University of Rochester in New York, where she majored in French literature. She earned a master’s degree in French literature from Miami University in Ohio and a Ph.D. in French studies at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Maja Husar Holmes has been named director of the School of Public Affairs & Administration at the University of Kansas, effective January 1. She will also serve as a tenured professor of public administration. She has spent the last 15 years teaching at West Virginia University, where she has directed the department of public administration.

Dr. Holmes is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a master of public administration degree and a Ph.D. from Syracuse University.