Six Women Taking on New Administrative Roles at Universities Across the Nation

Nicole Huang was appointed director of the Wisconsin China Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Madison. She is a professor of Chinese literature and visual culture at the university.

Dr. Huang is a native of China and earned her bachelor’s degree at Beijing University and holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles. She joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin in 1998.

Barbara Christ was named interim dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. She is a professor of plant pathology and since 2009 has been senior associate dean at the College. Dr. Christ joined the Penn State faculty in 1984.

Professor Christ is a graduate of Penn State and holds a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. in botany from the University of British Columbia.

Barbara A. Abercrombie was appointed associate vice chancellor for human resources at the University of Arkansas. She was the director of human resources at the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa.

Abercrombie is a graduate of Northeastern Oklahoma University. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma and is currently completing a doctorate in workforce education and human relations at Oklahoma State University.

Aimee Turner was named associate vice president and controller at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She has been serving as the treasurer and chief financial officer of the J. Craig Venter Institute. She will assume her new duties at Cornell on October 17.

A certified public accountant, Turner is a graduate of Frostburg State University in Maryland.

Lynn Darling is the new director of the Early Childhood Institute at Mississippi State University. She has been on the staff at the institute for the past decade and since 2011 has served as interim director.

Dr. Darling is a graduate of Emory University. She earned master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Maryland College Park.

Alexandra Mazalek was appointed director of the digital media program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is an associate professor in the university’s School of Literature, Media, and Communication.

Dr. Mazalek holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.