Researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University have discovered a promising procedure that may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer for women who want to bear children but are at high risk of ovarian cancer. Rather than remove the ovaries, scientists have discovered that eliminating a layer of cells called ovarian surface epithelium may greatly reduce the risk. In tests on animals subjects, researchers removed this layer of cells where ovarian cancer usually begins. The animals continued to produce eggs at a normal rate and there were no adverse negative consequences to the health of the test subjects.
Further testing is planned. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and was published in the journal Human Reproduction.
A survey conducted by the Scripps Howard Foundation found that 35 of the nation’s 50 flagship state universities had more female applicants in 2010 than male applicants. Forty-two of the 50 flagship universities accepted women at a higher rate than men.
Maria C. Bennett Rose was named interim president at Fairmont State University in West Virginia. A member of the faculty at the university for the past 20 years, Dr. Rose has been serving as provost and vice president for academic affairs. She began her academic career teaching fourth, fifth, and sixth graders in a two-room schoolhouse in Idamay, West Virginia.
R. Heather MacDonald, Chancellor Professor of Geology at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, has been named one of the three finalists for the Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching. The award is made possible by an estate gift from Robert Foster Cherry, a 1928 graduate of Baylor University, who had a deep appreciation for the Baylor University teachers who had changed his life.
Moraine Park Technical College, which operates three campuses in Beaver Dam, Fond du Lac, and West Bend, Wisconsin, has announced that this July Sheila Ruhland will become the institution’s president. Dr. Ruhland is currently vice president for instruction at Rockingham Community College in Wentworth, North Carolina.
This July Elaine Tuttle Hansen will step down as president of Bates College, the highly regarded liberal arts college in Maine. Before becoming president of Bates in 2002, Dr. Hansen was provost at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and earned a master’s degree at the University of Minnesota and a Ph.D. at the University of Washington.
The college announced that Nancy J. Cable, currently Bates’ vice president and dean of enrollment and external affairs, will serve as interim president for the 2011-12 academic year. She will return to her current position when a permanent successor to President Hansen is found. Dr. Cable is a graduate of Marietta College. She holds a master’s in education from the University of Vermont and a doctorate in educational history from the University of Virginia.
Christine Moffitt, professor of fish and wildlife resources at the University of Idaho, received the 2011 Virginia Wolf Distinguished Service Award from the university’s Women’s Center.
Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, received The Judge Lois G. Forer Child Advocacy Award, from the Support Center for Child Advocates in Philadelphia. The organization provides pro bono legal services for children in crisis. Judge Forer was a judge in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas who was a lifelong advocate for children.
Kristy Edmunds was named executive and artistic director of UCLA Live, the performing arts program at the University of California at Los Angeles. She was deputy dean at the Victorian College of Arts at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
Renee Alexander was appointed associate dean of students and director of intercultural programs at Cornell University. Since 2006 she has served as director of diversity alumni programs at the university. Alexander is a 1974 graduate of Cornell.
Debra K. Townsend was appointed vice president for communications at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. She has been the head of her own consulting firm based in Loudonville, New York.
Barbara J. Ellis was named vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. She has served as interim vice chancellor for the past year.
Tara Brooks was appointed director of multicultural affairs at Fairmont State University in West Virginia. After assuming her new duties, she will continue to serve as an associate professor in the university’s School of Education and Health and Human Performance.
On July 1, Kimberly Andrews Espy will become vice president for research and innovation and dean of the graduate school at the University of Oregon. Currently, she is associate vice chancellor for research at the University of Nebraska.
Martha A. Smith, president of Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland since August 1994, has announced that she will retire on August 1. Before coming to Anne Arundel Community College, Dr. Smith was dean of students and then president of Dundalk Community College in Baltimore.
Inez Tuck was named dean of the School of Nursing at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. Since 1997 she has been a professor and administrator at the School of Nursing at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her appointment as dean is effective on July 1.
Cathy E. Minehan was appointed dean of the Simmons College School of Management in Boston. She will begin her new position on August 1. She has been serving as chair of the Massachusetts Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors. Previously, she was president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Stephanie G. Adams was named chair of the engineering education department at Virginia Tech. She is currently an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. She will assume her new position in August.
Samantha B. Joye was appointed Athletic Association Professor in Arts and Sciences at the University of Georgia. She has been on the university’s marine sciences faculty since 1997. She has been one of the nation’s leading experts studying oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico.
Charlene Kammerer will serve as bishop-in-residence at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University from 2013 to 2016. In 2012 she will step down as bishop of the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church. She previously served as assistant minister and interim dean of the chapel at Duke University.
The Center for Engineering and Education Outreach at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, received a $60,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation for a program that aims to increase the number of women in engineering. Under the program teachers from area public elementary schools will attend summer workshops focused on increasing their skills to teach engineering-related subjects. Undergraduate mentors from Tufts will provide young girls in these elementary schools with role models during the school year. In addition, scholarships will be made available for girls to attend summer camps that focus on science and engineering.
This fall 15 students at Eastern Michigan University in Yipsilanti may be taking a class inside the Huron Valley Correctional Facility for women. The Inside Out exchange program will include 15 university students and 15 inmates who will take an introductory course on gender and sexuality at the correctional facility. The course, which will be open to both men and women at the university, is under the direction of Jessica Kilbourn and Kathryn Ziegler, lecturers in women’s and gender studies at the university.
Susan Kubik, vice president of institutional advancement at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and executive director of the NCC Foundation, has announced her retirement after serving at the college for more than 35 years. The NCC Foundation raises over $2 million each year and oversees the fourth largest community college endowment in the United States, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
The board of regents of the University of Wisconsin system has approved the appointment of Renee Wachter as the 12th chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Superior. Dr. Wachter will take office on July 1. Currently, she is dean of the School of Business at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. Prior to coming to Truman State in 2006, she was associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Business at Montana State University.
The board of trustees of Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari, New Mexico, unanimously approved the appointment of Mildred Lovato as the educational institution’s next president. Dr. Lovato is scheduled to assume her new post on July 1.
The College of Liberal Arts at the University of Nevada Las Vegas is facing a $1.64 million cut in its budget. Originally, the departments of philosophy and women’s studies were to be eliminated to make up part of the funding shortfall. But a new proposal will retain the philosophy department but eliminate nontenured faculty positions in anthropology, sociology, and philosophy. The women’s studies department would still be eliminated. The board of regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education must approve the plan.
Stephanie Markovits was granted tenure and promoted to full professor of English at Yale University. Dr. Markovits is a 1994 summa cum laude graduate of Yale College. She holds a master’s degree in English romantic studies from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in English language and literature from Yale University. Her latest book is The Crimean War in the British Imagination (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
In response to news that that the U.S. Department of Education had launched an investigation into sexual harassment grievance procedures at Yale University, provost Peter Salovey announced the formation of a new University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct. Plans for the new committee have been in the works since last summer, according to Salovey. Yale took this action after a group of 16 Yale students claimed in a formal complaint to the Department of Education that members of a Yale fraternity marched through campus chanting derogatory slogans targeting women. The women alleged that Yale’s response was inadequate and, as a result, a sexually hostile environment exists on campus.
Arkansas Baptist College, a historically black educational institution in Little Rock, has agreed to a $20,000 settlement of a retaliation lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The suit charged that the college canceled a woman’s consulting contract and prohibited her from teaching classes after she had filed a suit charging the college with discrimination on the basis of age, sex, and disability.
A study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons finds that women are making progress in closing the gap with men in training for general surgery. The data shows that in the year 2000, women were 32 percent of all medical school graduates who entered general surgical training programs. By 2005 women made up 40 percent of all medical school graduates beginning training in general surgery.
â— Robin A. Roberts was appointed dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas. She will assume her new post this July. Currently, Dr. Roberts is a professor of English and women’s and gender studies at Louisiana State University.
Susan Koch was named chancellor of the University of Illinois at Springfield. When she takes office in July, Dr. Koch will also hold a tenured faculty position in the College of Education and Human Services at the university. Currently, she is provost and vice president for academic affairs at Northern Michigan University in Marquette. Prior to coming to NMU in 2007, Dr. Koch was associate provost and dean of the graduate college at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Rapids.
Elizabeth S. May, an educator who was the first woman appointed to the board of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, has died at her home in Harvard, Massachusetts, at the age of 103.
