Here is this week’s roundup of women faculty members who have been appointed to new positions in the academic world. If you have news for our appointments section, please email the information to contact@WIAReport.com.

Baylor College of Medicine's Huda Zoghbi has been awarded Columbia University's Louisa Gross Horowitz Prize and Villanova University's Mendel Medal in honor of her groundbreaking research into the genetic causes of neurological disorders.

The new deans are Bethany Cieslowski at the George Mason University School of Nursing, Irma Medina at Holyoke Community College, Susan English at Wor-Wic Community College, and Raida Abuizam at the Honors and University College of Purdue University Northwest

Dr. Ryu has taught at Elon University in North Carolina for the past seven years. She was recently honored by the Mathematical Association of America for her dedication to undergraduate mathematics education, mentorship, and research.

The appointments are Lara Hodgson at Georgia Tech, Marla A. Vickers at Georgia State University, Chidi Blyden at Harvard University, Lindsay Gavin at Townson University, Lindsey Hunter at Langston University, Renee Craig-Marius at the California Community Colleges system, and Terri L. Winfree at Gogebic Community College.

Dr. Jeon, a linguistics professor at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, focuses her scholarship on reading comprehension and language proficiency. Her co-edited book, Understanding L2 Proficiency, was recently honored by the Japanese Language Testing Association.

The women who have been selected for endowed positions are Yuehwern Yih at Purdue University in Indiana, Dominique Somda at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, Abigail Swingen at Yale University, Erika Consoli at the University of Idaho, and Melanie Kornides at the University of Pennsylvania.

Indiana University has named three women scholars to lead implementation of the Chicago Principles on their campuses. The Chicago Principles are a statement of values that emphasize the role of universities as places to freely examine, debate and challenge ideas in the pursuit of knowledge.

“While attitudes improved sharply between 1965 and 2006, the years since have produced a gap in how men and women experience evaluation, standards, and opportunity,” the authors write. “The divergence indicates progress on the surface, but deterioration underneath.”

Most recently, Dr. Hooyman was vice president of academic affairs and provost of Northwest Missouri State University. She was the first woman to serve in that role.

In the 2025–26 television season, women's share of television creators was lower than it was a decade ago. Over the past year, there have been significant declines in the number of women creators, directors, and on-screen characters in television.

Born and raised in Alaska, Dr. O'Hara previously spent more than two decades with the College of Education at California State University, Sacramento. More recently, she was executive director of Sierra College's Nevada County Campus.