New Endowed Faculty Appointments for Five Women Scholars

Sohini Pillai has been named to the Marlene Crandell Francis Endowed Chair in the Humanities at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. She currently serves as an assistant professor of religion and director of the film and media studies program. Her work focuses on religious traditions in South Asia, religion in cinema, and epic literature. Earlier this year, she published Krishna’s Mahabharatas: Devotional Retellings of an Epic Narrative (Oxford University Press, 2024).

Dr. Pillai received her bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, a master’s degree from Columbia University in New York City, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Diana Parno has been appointed  the Falco DeBenedetti Associate Professor of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A member of the university’s faculty since 2017, her work centers around neutrino physics. Previously, she was a research assistant professor of physics at the University of Washington.

Dr. Parno received her bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in physics from Carnegie Mellon University.

Amy Spurlock has been named the JoAnna “Jody” DeMeyer Endowed Chair for Nursing at Boise State University in Idaho. Prior to joining the Boise State faculty in 2021, she spent nearly two decades as a professor of nursing with Troy University in Alabama. Her research focuses on the evaluation and use of blended tube feedings in children, as well as chronically ill adults.

Dr. Spurlock earned her bachelor of nursing degree from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, a master of nursing degree from the University of Virginia, and a PhD in nursing from the University of Kentucky.

Amie Boal has been named to the Nicholas and Gelsa Pelick Family Chair in Science at Pennsylvania State University. She first joined the Penn State faculty in 2013, and currently holds appointments in the department of chemistry and the department of biochemistry and molecular biology. Earlier in her career, she served as a postdoctoral scholar at Northwestern University in Illinois.

Dr. Boal holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Pomona College in California and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology.

Alina Alexeenko has been appointed as the Reilly Professor in Aeronautics and Astronautics and Chemical Engineering at Purdue University in Indiana. She has been a member of the Purdue faculty for nearly two decades, currently serving as a full professor and founding co-director of the Advanced Lyophilization Technology Hub. She previously served as associate dean of undergraduate education for Purdue’s College of Engineering.

Dr. Alexeenko received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in applied mathematics from Novosibirsk State University in Russia. She holds a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from Pennsylvania State University.