Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has selected Lainie Rutkow to serve as interim provost, following the departure of current provost Ray Jayawardhana, recently appointed president of the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Rutkow will assume her new responsibilities in mid-February.
A professor of health policy and management in the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the School of Advanced International Studies, Dr. Rutkow has served as executive vice provost at Johns Hopkins for the past two years. She has held several key leadership roles at the university, including vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives, senior advisor to the president, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Law and the Public’s Health, and co-director of the joint MPH/JD program.
Originally trained as a public health lawyer and researcher, Dr. Rutkow focuses on use of the law to protect and promote public health, with a particular emphasis on emergency preparedness and chronic disease prevention. From 2016 to 2019, she was the inaugural visiting scholar with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Law Program. Dr. Rutkow also developed and led the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, considered one of the leading data-sources on COVID-19.
Dr. Rutkow is a graduate of Yale University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and history of science and medicine. She earned her law degree from New York University and holds a master of public health degree and a Ph.D. in health policy from Johns Hopkins University.
Following six months of interim service, Piyusha Singh has been officially named provost and vice president of academic affairs at Lincoln University of Missouri.
Awotunde Judyie Ella Al-Bilali, professor of performance and theater for social change at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, passed away on January 16. She was 72 years old.
Each week, 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 do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board of WIAReport.
Women in Academia Report regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view. The opinions expressed in these books do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board of WIAReport. As an Amazon Associate, WIAReport will earn a fraction of revenue from qualifying purchases.
Jennifer L. Mnookin has been selected to be the next president of Columbia University in New York City. She will begin her presidency on July 1, 2026.
The University of Iowa received a gift from alumna Sheryl Stoll to establish the Iowa High School Girls Basketball Pioneer Fund, which will recognize the state of Iowa’s girls’ high school basketball history and support some of the pressing needs of the university’s women’s basketball team. Stoll received her juris doctorate from the University of Iowa in 1980. She was inspired to create the new fund by her late grandmother, who played on a successful high school basketball team in the 1930s. Although the team was eligible to play in their state’s championship tournament, their school’s superintendent barred them from participating, saying the tournament “would be too hard on the girls.”
The men’s and women’s basketball teams at Columbia University received a $10 million gift from the family of Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine. The funds will provide support to both teams and endow the women’s head coaching position, now known as the Lavine Family Head Coach of Women’s Basketball. The gift is the largest single donation for women’s athletics at Columbia.
Scripps College, a women’s liberal arts educational institution in Claremont, California, has received a $15 million gift from the Carolyn Lake Claremont Foundation. This total includes a previously announced $5.2 million gift from the foundation and completes a multi-year philanthropic commitment to phase one of Scripps’ Centennial Plaza Project. Once complete, the project will link the college’s Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery and Garrison Theatre in the Performing Arts Center into a vibrant hub for creativity and connection. Phase one of the project includes the construction of the Carolyn Lake Dance Center.
Maria Fedorova is a Russian/Soviet historian whose research interests include the global history of food security, the history of science and technology, and agricultural history. She joined the faculty at the college in 2019. She is the author of 
Taryn Flock is a mathematician who studies fundamental inequalities in harmonic analysis. In her research, she characterizes the conditions under which functions satisfy well-known inequalities and describes the extreme situations under which these equations become equalities. Born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining the Macalester College faculty, Dr. Flock conducted post-doctoral studies at the University of Birmingham in England and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Tia-Simone Gardner teaches in the department of media and cultural studies. Her interests include art, history, place studies, Black feminisms, and power. Dr. Gardner received her bachelor’s degree in art and art history from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and holds a master of fine arts degree in interdisciplinary practices and time-based media from the University of Pennsylvania. She earned a Ph.D. in feminist studies from the University of Minnesota.
Kelsey Grinde is a statistician specializing in data science, biostatistics, and statistical genetics. She joined the college’s faculty in 2020. Most recently, her work has focused on developing statistical methods for genetic studies in populations with mixed, diverse ancestry. Dr. Grinde is a graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she majored in mathematics. She earned a Ph.D. in biostatistics from the University of Washington.
Ariel James is a cognitive psychologist whose r
Jean-Marie Maddux is a behavioral neuroscientist in the psychology department whose research focuses on the neural and psychological mechanisms behind learning and motivation, especially with the goal of understanding addiction to alcohol and nicotine. She joined the faculty in 2023 after teaching for seven years at Lake Forest College in Illinois. Dr. Maddux is a graduate of Binghamton University in New York, where she majored in integrative neuroscience. She earned a master’s degree and Ph.D. in psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Anna Williams is an associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy. She joined the college’s faculty in 2018. Her primary research focuses on observational detections of magnetic fields in distant galaxies using radio telescopes. Dr Williams is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where she majored in astronomy and played varsity volleyball. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also conducted post-doctoral research.
Leanne Marie Shank, longtime general counsel at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, passed away on December 7. She was 69 years old.
A group of more than 20 women faculty members at the University of Colorado Denver recently filed a class action lawsuit against the university, claiming wage discrimination based on their gender, according to a report from Colorado Public Radio. 
Tara Fischer is a new assistant professor in the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology and the department of molecular biology and genetics at Cornell University in New York. Her research focuses on how cells detect and repair organelle damage, and how these processes influence inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Fischer previously served as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health.
Susan Ostermann has been named director of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. A faculty member since 2017, she is an associate professor of global affairs and founder of the university’s summer study abroad program in India. She has conducted extensive fieldwork regarding state capacity, law, and regulatory compliance in regions throughout South Asia.
Julie Croff was named principal investigator for the Center for Integrative Research on Childhood Adversity at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, where she teaches as a professor in the department of rural health. Throughout her tenure with the university, she has served in several leadership roles, including founding executive director of the National Center for Wellness and Recovery, associate director for research at the Center for Family Resilience, and founding director of the master of public health degree program.
Beth Thompson has joined the faculty of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine as an associate professor in the department of population health sciences and the Center for Public and Corporate Veterinary Medicine. With a background in both law and veterinary medicine, Dr. Thompson previously served as the state veterinarian for South Dakota and director of the South Dakota Veterinary Licensing Board. Earlier, she was the state veterinarian for Minnesota.
Melanie Logue was named director of graduate nursing programs at Midwestern University’s College of Health Sciences in Glendale, Arizona. Most recently, Dr. Logue was director of nursing operations at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in Florida. Earlier, she held a series of leadership roles at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, including service as dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professions. Her nursing background includes roles in intensive care units, emergency medicine, and pediatrics.
Sieg Snapp has been appointed associate dean for research for the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University. She currently serves as global director of the sustainable agrifood systems program at CIMMYT, an international research organization based in Mexico that works to improve the sustainability and profitability of cropping systems. Previously, Dr. Snapp was a professor and associate director of the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations at Michigan State University.
Shanna Rose has been named associate director of the Rose Institute for State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College in California. A faculty member since 2014, Dr. Rose currently serves as the Alice Tweed Tuohy Professor in Management and Government. She is also the founding director of the college’s public policy major. Her research focuses on the intersection of public policy, federalism, and American political economy.
Linda Renzulli is senior associate vice provost for faculty affairs at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She first joined the university in 2016 and currently serves as a professor and head of the department of sociology. Her scholarship examines the intersection of organizations and stratification in the educational setting, including both K-12 schools and academia.
Maria Rosario Jackson has returned to the Arizona State University faculty as a University Professor of Creativity and Social Impact. In 2022, while teaching at The Design School at ASU, President Joe Biden appointed Dr. Jackson as head of the National Endowment for the Arts. Earlier in her career, she founded ASU’s Studio for Creativity, Place, and Equitable Communities.
Tanya M. Sudia has been named dean of the Louise Herrington School of Nursing at Baylor University in Dallas, Texas. Her deanship marks a return to Baylor, where she previously served as the Herrington School’s inaugural associate dean for research and scholarship. Currently, Dr. Sudia is interim dean, chief nursing officer, and professor at the University of Texas at Arlington College of Nursing and Health Innovation. Earlier, she spent four years as dean of the Augusta University College of Nursing in Georgia.
Effective April 1, Carmen R. Carter will serve as the inaugural dean of Prairie View A&M University’s University College, a new academic unit created to strengthen the first two years of the undergraduate experience. With over 20 years of leadership experience, Dr. Carter currently serves as associate vice provost for academic affairs at PVAMU. She has an extensive background in academic policy, curriculum innovation, and student success initiatives.
Wendy DuBose is the new dean of health sciences at Wallace Community College-Dothan in Alabama. Since 2022, Dr. DuBose has served as an assistant clinical professor, coordinator of the RN to BSN program, and coordinator of the MSN nurse educator track at the School of Nursing at Auburn University at Montgomery. In these roles, she has led curriculum development, supported faculty, and championed student success.
Sara Robicheaux is the new dean of the Michael E. Stephens College of Business at the University of Montevallo in Alabama. A faculty member since 2024, she previously spent two decades on the faculty of the now-closed Birmingham-Southern College. She held several leadership roles throughout her tenure, including dean of business programs, director of the Jane and Kevin Stump Entrepreneurship Program, and interim vice president of institutional advancement. She also held a B.A. Monaghan Professorship in Business for over a decade.
Nannette C. Turner has been selected to serve as interim dean of the College of Health Professions at Mercer University in Georgia. A faculty member since 2007, Dr. Turner currently serves as the college’s executive associate dean. Before her current role, she was chair of the college’s department of public health. Dr. Turner has over 25 years of experience as a public health practitioner in Texas and Georgia.
Stephanie Jones, professor of neuroscience at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, recently received the 2025 Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health. The award recognizes faculty members who have shown superior mentorship and training in neuroscience research.
Adreanna Johnson is the new associate vice president for strategic engagement at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina. Earlier, Johnson was a strategy and performance analyst with the Durham County government. She is the founder of The Alumni Collective, a North Carolina-based organization focused on strengthening alumni engagement and philanthropic support for historically Black colleges and universities.
Virginia Meehan has been promoted to executive director for government relations at the University of Maryland, where she has worked for nearly a decade. During her tenure, she has secured significant congressional funding for the university and strengthened its national research profile. Earlier in her career, Meehan was director of federal relations at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Natalie M. Blais has been named associate vice chancellor for government relations at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She previously served the university as chief of staff to the chancellor. From 2018 to 2026, she served as a Massachusetts state representative. Blais also has over a decade of experience as a congressional aide to U.S. Representatives John W. Olver and James P. McGovern.
Nicole Wagner is the new assistant vice president of gift planning at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She has worked in the university’s Office of Gift Planning since 2012, most recently serving as the senior director of gift planning. Before joining the Virginia Tech staff, Wagner provided legal counsel to a number of clients on business initiatives and transactions, risk management, impact assessment, and other operational matters.
Tuwanna Williams is the new executive director of workforce education at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Mississippi. Her appointment marks a return to the college, where she previously served as a college navigator and WIOA workforce recruiter for six years. Most recently, Williams was director of workforce development for the City of Natchez, Mississippi.
Emily Williams has been named the inaugural associate vice president for alumni engagement at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Earlier, she was director of career and alumni engagement at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. Her other experience in higher education includes alumni engagement positions at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Brandi Bush Roberts was appointed chief financial officer of the Louisiana State University System. She most recently served as associate vice president and chief of staff for finance and administration at Louisiana State University. Her background includes over two decades of experience in higher education administration, including more than 10 years leading financial operations for LSU Auxiliary Services.
Karen Detlefsen has been named the Adam Seybert Professor in Moral and Intellectual Philosophy in the School of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Detlefsen’s research focuses on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophy, women philosophers of that period, and the philosophy of education. Professor Detlefsen is a graduate of the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, where she majored in English and philosophy. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Western Ontario and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Toronto.
Nicole Rust has been appointed the Rose Family Endowed Term Professor of Psychology in the School of Arts & Sciences. Her research focuses on understanding the brain’s ability to remember the things we’ve seen—visual memory—and what in the brain drives the mysterious feeling we call “mood.” Professor Rust is the author of 
Lilith Todd has been named the Stephen M. Gorn Family Assistant Professor of English in the School of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Todd studies seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British, American, and Caribbean literature; care work in the past and present; and poetics across literary forms. She is currently completing a book entitled Care Work: Nursing and Writing, 1650-1800. Dr. Todd is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she majored in English and history. She holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Columbia University in New York City.
Marvalene Hughes, the first woman president of California State University, Stanislaus, and the first woman president of Dillard University in New Orleans, passed away on January 3. She was 88 years old.
Just days after the University of Arkansas announced the appointment of Emily Suski as the next dean of the School of Law, administrators 
Kathleen “Kat” Weaver has been promoted to executive vice president and provost of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She has held the role on an interim basis since June 2025.
Danielle M. Conway, dean of Penn State Dickinson Law and the School of International Affairs, was elected president of the Association of American Law Schools during the association’s annual meeting earlier this month.
Deborah Poole, professor emerita of anthropology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, passed away on January 3. She was 73 years old.
Beeta Baghoolizadeh, an associate research scholar at Columbia University’s Middle East Institute, is the author of 
Catherine Tatiana Dunlop, a professor of history and philosophy at Montana State University, won the J. Russell Major Prize in French History and the George L. Mosse Prize in European Intellectual and Cultural History. Professor Dunlop was honored for her book 
Antoinette T. Jackson, professor and chair of the department of anthropology at the University of South Florida, was presented with the John Lewis Award for History and Social Justice. As the founder and leader of the Black Cemetery Network, Dr. Jackson’s work to recover and restore Black cemeteries exemplifies the intersection of historical work and social justice. She has been on the faculty at the University of South Florida for more than two decades. Dr. Jackson is the author of 
Alissa Klots, an assistant professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, was awarded the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women’s History for her book
Alison L. LaCroix, the Robert Newton Reid Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, where she is also an associate member of the history department, was honored with the Littleton-Griswold Prize in American Law and Society. Professor LaCroix was recognized for her book 
Marcy Norton, professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, won the Friedrich Katz Prize in Latin American History. She was honored for her book 
Gloria McCahon Whiting, the E. Gordon Fox Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, received the AHA Prize in American History. She was honored for her book 
Amanda Wunder, a professor of art history, history, and global early modern studies at Lehman College of the City University of New York, was honored with the Leo Gershoy Award in Western European History. She is a cultural historian of early modern Europe with a focus on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain. She was honored for her book 
This semester, the University of Houston closed its Women and Gender Resource Center and replaced it with the new “Cougar Parent and Family Engagement Office,” according to a 
Leslie Grinage has stepped down from her role as dean and vice president of campus life and student experience at Barnard College, a highly selective liberal arts institution for women in New York City. Her resignation was announced in an internal email sent by Barnard President Laura Rosenbury.
Nikki Youngblood-Giles first joined Barnard College in 2008 as associate director of the Higher Education Opportunity Program. As vice dean, she oversees student life and residential life, as well as opportunity programs, student success, and international student services. Dr. Youngblood-Giles earned her bachelor’s degree in child development from Spelman College in Atlanta and her master’s degree in curriculum and teaching from Columbia University’s Teachers College. She received her doctorate from New York University, where her research examined the experiences of students who identify as first-generation and low-income at elite institutions.
Holly Tedder began her tenure with Barnard in 2019. Currently, she oversees the Deans’ Office for Advising and Support, Access Barnard, study abroad programming, the Center for Accessibility Resources and Disability Services, and other initiatives relating to student support. Before her tenure at Barnard, she was director of disability services and associate registrar at The Juilliard School in New York City. Tedder holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Rollins College in Florida and a master’s degree in higher and postsecondary education from Teachers College at Columbia University. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in higher education administration from Northeastern University.
Stephanie Erdmann, chief executive officer and dean of Montana State University’s Great Falls College, recently announced her intent to retire in July 2026.
Mildred Bernice Gauthier Gallot, a longtime professor at Grambling State University in Louisiana, passed away on December 26. She was 88 years old.
Angela Wilson has been appointed vice president for research at Texas A&M University. She comes to her new role from Michigan State University, where she holds the titles of John A. Hannah Distinguished University Professor and University Distinguished Professor. Previously, Dr. Wilson was director of the division of chemistry at the National Science Foundation. Her research centers on the development and understanding of computational methodologies in chemistry.
Michelle Heck was named director of the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech. Previously, Dr. Heck was a lead scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. She has also taught as an adjunct professor of plant pathology and plant-microbe biology at Cornell University and the Boyce Thompson Institute. Drawing from expertise in molecular genetics, virology, and crop protection, Dr. Heck’s research centers on plant-pathogen interactions and vector biology.
Fenaba R. Addo has been promoted to full professor in the department of public policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before joining the university’s faculty, Dr. Addo taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the co-author of 
Abby Storrs is the new director of nursing at Southern State Community College in Hillsboro, Ohio. A faculty member at the college since 2022, Storrs has over 10 years of experience in nursing education and clinical practice. In addition to teaching, she is a family nurse practitioner at West Main Urgent Care and Campbell Family Practice in Ohio.
The American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology recently awarded three women in higher education for their outstanding contributions to the education of nurse anesthesiologists.
Lori Anderson, associate professor and director of the nurse anesthesia program at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, received the 2026 Program Administrator of the Year Award.
Carrie Bowman Dalley, program director and associate professor in the doctor of nurse anesthesia practice program at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., received the Didactic Instructor of the Year Award.
Susan Newell, assistant professor of nursing at the University of Cincinnati, received the Clinical Instructor of the Year Award.
Katy Lundell-Stuhr is the new dean of technical programs at Ridgewater College in Minnesota. She has been a faculty member with the college since 2014, currently serving as a massage therapy instructor and program director. Previously, Dr. Lundell-Stuhr operated Lundell Chiropractic Health Center in Granite Falls, Minnesota.
Heather Pendleton-Helm is the new dean of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Northern Colorado 
Anna Y. Q. Ho, assistant professor of astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, has received the 2026 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize from the American Astronomical Society. Presented annually, the award recognizes an early-career scientist for their outstanding achievement, over the past five years, in observational astronomical research based on measurements of radiation from an astronomical object.