Lauren Ancel Myers was appointed director of the Division of Statistics and Scientific Computation at the University of Texas in Austin. She is a professor of integrative biology at the university.
Dr. Myers has been on the faculty at the University of Texas since 2003. She is a graduate of Harvard University and holds a Ph.D. in biology from Stanford University.
Juliette M. Rogers, an associate professor of French and Francophone studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, has been granted tenure. She joined the college faculty in 2010 after serving as an associate professor of French at the University of New Hampshire.
A graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio, Professor Rogers holds a Ph.D. from Duke University.
Mary Leigh Wolfe was appointed chair of the department of biological systems engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg. She has served in the position on an interim basis since December 2009. Her research focuses on hydrology and watershed management issues.
Dr. Wolfe holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. in agricultural engineering from the University of Minnesota.
Barbara Tobias was named to the Robert and Myfanwy Smith Chair of Family Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. She has been serving as a professor in the department of family and consumer medicine.
Dr. Tobias is a graduate of Cornell University and completed her medical degree at the University of Cincinnati.
Terri Mitchell was appointed to the position of controller and associate vice president for administration at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Foundation in Blacksburg. She has been an administrator at the foundation for the past three years.
Susan Stryker is the new director of the Institute for LGBT Studies at the University of Arizona. She was an associate professor of gender studies at Indiana University.
Canan Bilen-Green was named interim director of the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at North Dakota State University. She is a professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering at the university.
Jan Hathcote was appointed registrar at the University of Georgia. She has been serving in the position on an interim basis. Since 1997 she was associate dean for academic affairs and research in the university’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences.
Virginia M. Rometty was named president and chief executive officer of IBM, one of the nation’s leading high technology companies. She has been serving as senior vice president and group executive for sales, marketing, and strategy. Previously, she was head of IBM Global Business Services. Upon her appointment, Rometty said, “There is no greater privilege in business than to be asked to lead IBM.”
Ellen Kennedy was named interim president of Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She will begin her new duties in January. Currently she is chief financial officer and vice president of administration and finance at the college. She joined the administration at the college in 2008.
Recently the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies announced the selection of 65 new members. New inductees are elected by the current membership, which now stands at 1,688. Candidates who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care, or public health are considered for election as members.
Mary H. McGrath, professor of surgery in the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of California at San Francisco, received the 2011 Distinguished Service Award from the American College of Surgeons. She was honored for her “outstanding clinical and academic contributions to the field of plastic surgery especially in the areas of breast, hand, wound healing, new technologies and workforce issues.”
Lisa Russ Spaar, a professor of English at the University of Virginia, who won the 2011 Carole Weinstein Prize in Poetry. The $10,000 prize recognizes significant achievement in the art of poetry. Professor Spaar is the author of five books of poetry.
Julie Campbell, associate director of communications and public affairs at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, received the People’s Choice Award for nonfiction for her book, 
Maxine Benjamin, who taught at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University for 30 years, has died. She was 89 years old.
From time to time, Women in Academia Report will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. We invite subscribers to e-mail us at editor@WIAReport.com with suggestions of articles for inclusion in this feature.
The College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota reports that women enrollments are up 4 percent from a year ago and at the highest level in the past decade. There are currently 1,666 women enrolled in the college. Women now make up 21 percent of the total enrollments in the College of Science and Engineering.
In 1962 Rose Olver became the first women to be hired to a tenure-track faculty position at Amherst College, the highly rated liberal arts institution in western Massachusetts. It would be another 13 years before women were admitted as students at Amherst.
Data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics shows that women in China ages 18 to 64 have had an average of 8.8 years of education compared to 9.1 years for men. The gender gap in average years of education has decreased from 1.5 years in 2000 to 0.3 years in 2010.
The Barnard Center for Research on Women in New York City recently celebrated its 40th anniversary with a two-day conference entitled “Activism and the Academy: Celebrating 40 Years of Feminist Scholarship and Action.” More than 700 participants attended the conference on the Barnard campus.
A study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that women graduates of MBA programs initially earn, on average, $4,600 less than recent male MBA graduates. The gender earning gaps for MBA graduates widens in later years.
Nsombi Ricketts, director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the Johnson School states, “Women face specific challenges in the workplace, but the value they provide is critical. Our program offerings are designed to give women the tools and resources necessary to achieve a successful career in business.”
“Women are not the sole victims, and men are not the sole perpetrators. Little things make a big difference. Every time we refer to a woman as a girl and a man as a boy, we’re setting ourselves back by disrespecting ourselves as sexual beings. Every time we blame someone for choice of clothes, choice of alcohol consumption, choices in friends and other associations, we take a step back, and it’s not just the responsibility of one director, one office, or one student organization. Everyone whose life touches this campus needs to be part of the town-gown relationship for a healthier William and Mary.”
Kathryn VandenBosch was named dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The appointment is effective on March 1, 2012. CALS enrolls about 2,600 undergraduates and 1,000 graduate students and encompasses 19 academic departments.
McGill University in Montreal has announced the six books that will be competing for The Cundill Prize in History. The prize which will be awarded in London in November offers the winning author a $75,000 grand prize. Two of the six books that will be considered for the Cundill Prize were written by women.
Maya Jasanoff, a professor of history at Harvard University, was nominated for her book 
Ulinka Rublack, a cultural historian on the faculty of Cambridge University and founding member of the Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies, was nominated for her book, 
Akiko Iwasaki, professor of immunobiology and molecular, cell, and developmental biology at Yale University, has been selected to receive the 2012 Eli Lilly and Company Research Award from the American Society of Microbiology. Her research focuses on innate viral recognition mechanisms and their link to adaptive immunity.
Rebecca Solnit, the Andrew D. White Professor at Large at Cornell University, was named the 2011 Robert Laxalt Distinguished Writer at the University of Nevada at Reno. She is the author of 13 books, including the award-winning 
Marie Chisholm-Burns, a professor and chair of the department of pharmacy practice and science at the University of Arizona, received the Pharmacy Practice Research Award from the American Society of Health Science Pharmacists. Dr. Chisholm-Burns was recently appointed dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. She will take office this January.
Marisel Moreno received the 2011 Governor’s Award for Service Learning at the Governor’s Conference on Service and Volunteerism in Indianapolis. She is an assistant professor of Romance languages and literatures at the University of Notre Dame. She was honored for her creation of a Spanish literature course that included a community-service requirement.
Mimi Chakarova, a professor of photography at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, received the Daniel Pearl Award from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. She was honored for her study of the underground criminal networks that force Eastern European women into prostitution abroad.
Louise O’Neal, former director of athletics, physical education, and recreation at Wellesley College, received the Lifetime Achievement and Legacy Award from the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators.
Stark State College in North Canton, Ohio, is a two-year institution that enrolls about 15,000 students. The college has announced four finalists for the institution’s presidency. Two of the four finalists are women.
Laura Coleman is the president of Bay de Noc Community College in Escanaba, Michigan. Previously, she was executive dean at the Bertrand Crossing campus of Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor.
Para Jones is president of Spartanburg Community College in South Carolina. She previously served as vice president for advancement, planning, and college relations at Stark State College.
Jean Bethke Elshtain was named Visiting Distinguished Professor of Religion and Public Life at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. She holds the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Chair in Social and Political Ethics at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Rachel Somerville has been named the inaugural holder of the George A. and Margaret M. Downsbrough Chair in Astrophysics at Rutgers University. Professor Somerville joined the Rutgers faculty this past summer. She was an associate research professor at Johns Hopkins University and an associate astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, the organization that schedules the usage of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Susan Kies, associate dean of academic affairs and curriculum management and clinical associate professor in the department of pathology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Urbana, will become the secretary of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. She will begin her new post on November 1. The new position will pay Dr. Kies a salary of $175,000.
The Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design at West Virginia University has announced the hiring of five new faculty members. Two of the new faculty are women.
Amy Welsh is a new assistant professor who will teach courses on wildlife and fisheries resources as well as conservation genetics.
Mo Zhou is a new assistant professor of forest economics. Before coming to Morgantown, she was an assistant professor at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.
Susan Tiano, professor of sociology and director of the Latin American and Iberian Institute at the University of New Mexico, was appointed to the Advisory Council of the Inter-American Foundation (IAF). The IAF is an independent government agency that was created by Congress in 1969. Its aim is to direct developmental assistance grants to nations in Latin American and the Caribbean. Since 1972, the IAF has awarded more than 4,600 grants with a value of more than $600 million.
Michelle Weisfeiner Bloom was named assistant professor in the division of cardiovascular diseases at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New York. She has just completed a one-year fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.
Kathy Gaughan was appointed clinical assistant professor of small animal clinical sciences at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. She has previously taught at veterinary schools at Auburn University and Kansas State University.
Tessa Balach is a new assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Connecticut. She specializes in tumors of the bone and soft tissue. She recently completed a fellowship in musculoskeletal oncology at the University of Chicago.
Monique Field was appointed assistant vice president for strategic initiatives at Michigan State University in East Lansing. For the past four years she has been an attorney for Weiner Associates, a governmental affairs law firm. Prior to that post, she was director of governmental affairs for the Michigan Department of Management and Budget.
Erin Harrel was named interim vice president for academic affairs at Edison State College in Fort Myers, Florida. She has been serving as dean of the School of Education and founding principal of the Edison Collegiate High School.
Ruth Stevens was named director of development communications at Princeton University. She has been on the staff of Princeton’s Office of Communications since 2000, most recently as director for strategic communications.
Susan Stepleton was named director of the Policy Forum at the Brown School of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the former president and CEO of Parents as Teachers.
Mary Raymond is the new associate dean of students and director of the Career Development Office at Pomona College in Claremont, California. She was director of career services at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Katherine Solender was appointed the John G.W. Cowles Director of the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College on an interim basis. She is the former director of exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Ruth Hohl Borger was named assistant vice president of the Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences at the University of Florida. She has been serving as communications director for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University.
Jerolyn Chapman Navarro is the inaugural first vice chancellor of diversity and outreach at the University of California at San Francisco. She first joined the faculty at the university in 2000.
Connie M. Forde was promoted to director of the department of instructional systems and workforce development at Mississippi State University. She was serving as the undergraduate and graduate coordinator for information technology services.
Devanna Corley was named director of development for the West Virginia University Alumni Association. She was vice president of institutional advancement at Fairmont State University in Fairmont, West Virginia.
Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan, was elected chair of the Association of American Universities. The nonprofit organization advocates for research funding for member institutions.
The Everywoman’s Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst received a three-year, $112,000 grant to provide outreach, counseling, and sexual assault prevention education in rural counties of Massachusetts. The center will reach out to victims of sexual assault and offer free peer counseling and support groups.
Wayne State University in Detroit received a five-year, $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for programs to increase the number of girls in local high schools who are prepared for college-level degree programs in health-related STEM fields. The funds will be used for summer academies for middle school girls and continuous mentoring support throughout the year for participating girls.
The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee has announced the appointment of Magda G. Peck as the inaugural dean of its Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health. Dr. Peck’s appointment is effective on March 1, 2012. Currently, she is associate dean for community engagement and public health practice and professor of pediatrics and public health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
