A Quartet of Women Who Have Been Named Deans

Christina Tran was appointed the founding dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine at Hanover College in Indiana. The new veterinary school plans to enroll its first students in 2026. Dr. Tran was most recently at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine, where she has been clinical relations lead veterinarian and associate professor of practice.

Dr. Tran received a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at the University of California, Davis. She holds a bachelor’s degree in veterinary sciences and a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from the University of Illinois

Lynne Richardson as appointed interim dean of the Michael E. Stephens College of Business at the University of Montevello in Alabama for the next two years. Dr. Richardson has served as dean of several business schools during her career in higher education, including the University of Mary Washington, Iona University, Mississippi State University, and Ball State University.

Dr. Richardson earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Montevello. She holds an MBA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Alabama.

Julie Andersen Hill was appointed dean of the University of Wyoming College of Law. She has been serving as vice dean and Alton C. and Cecile Cunningham Craig Professor of Law at the University of Alabama. Professor Hill, an expert in banking and commercial law, was previously a faculty member at the University of Houston Law Center.

Professor Hill is a graduate of Southern Utah University. She earned a juris doctorate at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Elissa Braunstein was named interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University, effective February 19. Dr. Braunstein recently completed a five-year tenure as chair of the economics department and currently serves as associate dean of research and graduate programs in the College of Liberal Arts. She also is an affiliate faculty member with the Center for Women’s Studies & Gender Research. Dr. Braunstein joined the faculty at Colorado State in 2005 from the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Professor Braunstein is a graduate of Cornell University, where she majored in economics and Asian studies. She holds a master’s degree from the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.