The University of Nevada at Las Vegas bestowed its first degrees in 1964, nearly a half century ago. Last month, the university gave out its 100,000th degree. The recipient was Emily Tamadonfar who majored in biology and graduated with a perfect grade point average. She now plans to go to medical school.
Tamadonfar was born and raised in Nevada and her father has taught political science at UNLV for 25 years. She was the valedictorian of her high school graduating class. At UNLV she conducted research on anatomy and stem cells. In addition to a stellar academic record, Tamadonfar volunteered in the oncology unit of St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Siena. She was also involved with Chemical Interactions, a campus group that seeks to increase the interest of elementary school students in chemistry.
Salem College, the women’s college in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, received a $50,000 grant from the Cobb Foundation of Boca Raton, Florida. The grant money will be used to purchase equipment for the biology, chemistry, and physics departments at the college. Among the equipment expected to be purchased with the funds are microscopes, sensors, spectrometers, an incubator, and a polarimeter.
Deborah Allen, an associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Delaware, was named director of the Center for Educational Effectiveness at the university. The center oversees projects at the university associated with teaching, learning, and the assessment of the effectiveness of those activities.
North Dakota State University has announced the appointment of two women as associate deans in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
Elizabeth Birmingham is an associate professor of English at the university. She is a graduate of Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. She holds a master’s degree in English and a Ph.D. in rhetoric and professional communication from Iowa State University. She joined the NDSU faculty in 2001.
Ann Burnett is a professor of communication and director of the university’s Women and Gender Studies Program. She joined the faculty in 1997 and was promoted to full professor in 2010. Previously she taught at Vanderbilt University and the University of Nebraska.
Barbara A. Sawrey, associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education at the University of California at San Diego, was elected to the board of directors of the American Chemical Society, a nonprofit organization with 163,000 members worldwide.
Dorothy E. Ebersbach was born in 1914. When World War II began she volunteered to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots. They flew non-combat missions of military aircraft, mostly delivering planes to military bases from the factories where they were produced.
Charlotte J. Patterson, professor of psychology and director of the University of Virginia’s Studies in Women and Gender (SWAG) program, is planning to expand the academic offerings for women’s studies students. She hopes to expand academic course offerings in the area of sexuality studies. Professor Patterson says, “This is an area that is just exploding across disciplines. It’s natural for our program to take it up.”
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that in the November 2008 election, 61.7 percent of women ages 18 to 24 were registered to vote and 52 percent actually voted. For college-age men, 55.3 percent were registered to vote and 45.1 percent actually voted.
Jane Weber, professor of education at Camden County College, received the 2011 Community College Counselor Award from the Kappa Delta Pi Education Honor Society. Professor Weber was honored for representing the mission and ideals of the honor society and for her dedication and excellence in guiding students as they pursue studies and careers in the field of education.
Mary Ann Samyn, the Bolton Professor of Teaching and Mentoring at West Virginia University, is the recipient of the Caperton Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing. The award is named after the former governor of West Virginia, Gaston Caperton, who is now president of The College Board.
Angie Boyer Dewberry was named the next registrar at Davidson College, the highly ranked liberal arts institution in North Carolina. She is currently the registrar at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. Her new appointment is effective on July 1.
Pamela Prescod-Caesar was named vice president for human resources at Swarthmore College in suburban Philadelphia. Her appointment is effective February 15. She has been serving as associate vice president for human resources at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.
Susan Rimmer, professor of geology at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, was named associate vice chancellor for research at the university. She joined the SIU faculty in 2009 after teaching at the University of Kentucky for 25 years.
Laura F. Gibson, the Alexander B. Osborn Distinguished Professor in Hematological Malignancies Research at West Virginia University, was named to the Basic Mechanisms of Cancer Therapeutics advisory committee of the National Institutes of Health. The committee reviews grant requests from cancer researchers.
Heidi Jarvis recently was hired as director of development for the Graduate School at Washington State University in Pullman. She is the former executive director of the Washington-Idaho Symphony. She has also held fundraising posts at the University of Oregon and the University of Idaho.
Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions and first-year experience at Ohio State University, is stepping down from her post later this month. She directs all recruitment and admissions operations for new freshmen and transfer students and oversees the First-Year Experience initiative to ensure their successful transition into the university community. For the past 11 years, the entering class at Ohio State has had a higher grade point average and higher average test scores than the class that preceded it. As a result, the university’s graduation rate has also increased.
Women make up about one of every five students at the three major U.S. military academies. One might assume that, due to the male-dominated environment, women would have a difficult time succeeding at these institutions. But this is not the case.
From time to time, Women in Academia Report will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. The links presented direct the reader to articles from many different points of view that deal with issues of women in higher education. The articles selected in no way reflect the views of the editorial board of WIAReport.
of California’s Citrus Industry (Swedenborg Foundation, 2011).
Michelle “Mikki” Hebl is a professor of psychology at Rice University in Houston. Earlier this month, she completed a remarkable journey by competing in and finishing marathons in all 50 states. Marathons are 26.2 miles races of endurance.
Susan B. Sorenson, professor of social policy and executive director of the Ortner Center on Family Violence at the University of Pennsylvania, states that “estimates differ substantially across sources, and comparisons are impeded by inconsistent definitions of rape and sexual assault.” Professor Sorensen says that “nationally-representative studies are rare and usually fail to include children, adolescents, men, people serving in the military, or those who are hospitalized or incarcerated.”
A new report entitled Equality in Higher Education: Statistical Report 2011 from the Equality Challenge Unit of the British government finds that 76.1 percent of all professorial staff at higher educational institutions in Britain are white males. Just 19.1 percent of all professorial staff are women.
Catherine M. Cullem is leaving the law school at the University of Tulsa after nearly 30 years on its faculty. She will soon begin working as an attorney for Deborah Barnes of the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals.
Mount Holyoke College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts, has announced that its current major in Asian studies will be expanded to offer degree programs in four specific fields. The new majors will be in East Asian studies, Middle Eastern studies, South Asian studies, and Asian studies, which will have a transregional focus.
“Language study remains a core component of the major, but now our students are expected to incorporate the humanities and the social sciences more fully into their studies,” said program chair and associate professor Ying Wang. The college has been offering language studies in Chinese, Japanese and Arabic. Korean was added this year and a course on Sanskrit will be offered next year.
Rebecca Ayako Bennette, was promoted to associate professor of history and granted tenure at Middlebury College, the highly ranked liberal arts college in Vermont. Dr. Bennette joined the Middlebury faculty in 2005.
Here is this week’s news of grants that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.
physics and astronomy, and chemistry and biochemistry.
The Modern Language Association has announced the winner of the Morton N. Cohen Award for a Distinguished Edition of Letters. The winning collection is 
Fehsenfeld is a graduate of Bennington College, holds a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and did doctoral work at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Overbeck is a graduate of Beloit College. She earned a master’s degree at the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania.
Two women are among four finalists for the 2012 Charles Rufus Morey Book Award presented by the College Art Association. The award is given to a distinguished book on the history of art published between September 2010 and August 2011. The winners will be announced in January and presented in February in Los Angeles.
Rebecca Messbarger is an associate professor of Italian and women, gender and sexuality studies at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of 
Nina Rowe is an assistant professor of art history at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York. She is being honored for her book, 
The U.S. Department of Defense reports that sexual assaults at the three major U.S. service academies were up by 59 percent in the 2010-11 academic year. There were 65 reported sexual assaults that year, up from 41 in the 2009-10 academic year. There were 33 reported sexual assaults at the Air Force Academy (up from 20 the previous year), 22 at the Naval Academy (double the number from 2009-10), and 10 at West Point. The number of reported assaults at West Point was the same as in 2009-10.
Sharon Bernstein was named the Donald W. Reynolds Visiting Professor in Business Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
Julie R. Cryser was named director of development for the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design at West Virginia University in Morgantown. She has been serving as director of development for the WVU Extension Service.
June Larson, associate dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, was elected to serve a three-year term on the board of governors of the National League of Nursing. Larson joined the USD faculty in 1980 and was appointed associate dean in 2009.
Marnie E. Arkenberg was promoted to assistant dean of academic affairs and instruction at William Peace University in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has been serving on the faculty teaching courses in cross-cultural development, biopsychology, and speech and language development.
Jennifer Carter was appointed assistant director for continuing and professional education at the Virginia Tech Research Center in Arlington. She was the director of outreach and instructional design coordinator for the Society for Science and the Public.
Silvia C. Ramos was appointed chief compliance officer for equal employment opportunity and affirmative action at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. She was serving as associate director of diversity education and training at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg. Prior to joining Virginia Tech three years ago, she was coordinator of university outreach at California State University-Channel Islands.
Elizabeth A. Burns was appointed associate dean for clinical affairs at the new Western Michigan University School of Medicine. Since 2008 she has served as president and CEO of the Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies.
The Women’s Chemists Committee of the American Chemical Society has announced the inaugural winners of its Rising Star Awards. The awards which will be given annually, beginning in 2012, will recognize exceptional achievement in chemistry by mid-career professionals.
Annaliese K. Franz is an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of California at Davis. She has served on the UCal Davis faculty since 2007. Dr. Franz is a graduate of Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Irvine.
Sarah E. Reisman is an assistant professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. She is a graduate of Connecticut College and holds a Ph.D. from Yale University. She conducted postdoctoral studies at Harvard University,
Malika Jeffries-El is an assistant professor of chemistry at Iowa State University. Her research focuses on organic synthesis and polymer chemistry with an emphasis on macromolecular design and synthesis. Dr. Jeffries-El is a graduate of Wellesley College. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from George Washington University.
Christine M. Ingersoll is an associate professor of chemistry at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Dr. Ingersoll is a graduate of the State University of New York at Oswego. She holds a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her recent research includes automated analytical sample preparation techniques using robotic workstations and liquid handlers.
Lois Curfman McInnes, a computational scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory operated by the University of Chicago, was named as a winner of a 2011 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award for “outstanding contributions in research and development supporting the Department of Energy and its mission.” The award was established in 1959 and is named after the scientist who invented the cyclotron.
Mary Hollinshed, professor of art history at the University of Rhode Island, was selected to receive the 2012 Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award from the Archaeological Institute of America. She will receive the award in January at the organization’s annual meeting in Philadelphia. Professor Hollinshed is a classical archaeologist who works with artifacts from ancient Rome, Greece, and other Mediterranean civilizations.
Susan Arnold, director of the West Virginia University Health Sciences Library, was chosen Librarian of the Year by the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the Medical Library Association. Arnold joined the staff at WVU in 1988 and has served a director of the medical library since 2004.
In 2010, for the first time in history, the board of regents of the University of Kansas voted to permit the awarding of honorary degrees. The university has announced the first four individuals who will receive honorary degrees at this spring’s commencement services in May. One of the four is a woman.
Evelyn E. Handler, the first woman president of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and the first woman president of the University of New Hampshire, was killed after being struck by a car while on a street in Bedford, New Hampshire. She was 78 years old.
From time to time, Women in Academia Report will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. The links presented direct the reader to articles from many different points of view that deal with issues of women in higher education. The articles selected in no way reflect the views of the editorial board of WIAReport.
Gwendolyn Joseph, who is retiring as vice president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, has agreed to serve on an interim basis as dean and chief executive officer of the Montana State University-Great Falls College of Technology. She will begin her new job on January 1. The university hopes to name a permanent dean by the end of the academic year.