Nine Women Faculty Members Taking on New Roles in Higher Education

Christina Xydias was promoted to associate professor of political science in the School of Arts & Sciences at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. She was also granted tenure.

Dr. Xydias is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science from Ohio State University.

Paula Cannon, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology in the School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, was named a Distinguished Professor at the university. Her research focuses on genetic solutions to HIV and pathogenic viruses.

Professor Cannon holds a Ph.D. from the University of Liverpool in England. She conducted postdoctoral research as a HIV scientist at both the University of Oxford and Harvard University.

Laura Malinin, an assistant professor of interior design at Colorado State University was appointed director of the university’s Richardson Design Center. The new center is scheduled to open in 2019.

Dr. Malinin is a graduate of Rice University in Houston, Texas. She holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Texas and a P.D. from the University of Colorado.

Julia Osman, an associate professor of history at Mississippi State University, is the new director of the university’s Institute for the Humanities.

Dr. Osman joined the faculty at the university in 2011. She is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She holds a master’s degree in European history and a Ph.D. in early-modern French history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Pamela Scully, a professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and a professor of African studies at Emory University in Atlanta, was appointed vice provost for undergraduate education, effective, June 1. She currently serves as associate vice provost for faculty affairs.

Professor Scully is the co-author of Sara Baartman and the Hottentot Venus: A Ghost Story and a Biography (Princeton University Press, 2009). She holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan.

Sarah Ades, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Pennsylvania State University was named associate dean for student affairs at the university’s Graduate School. She joined the faculty at the university in 2002.

Dr. Ades holds a bachelor’s degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University and a Ph.D. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Li-Shiun Chen was promoted to associate professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. She was also granted tenure. Dr. Chen focuses on smoking cessation treatments.

Dr. Chen earned her medical degree at National Taiwan University. She holds a master of public health degree and a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Irina Alexandra Feldman was promoted to associate professor in the department of Spanish and Portuguese at Middlebury College in Vermont. She was also granted tenure. Dr. Feldman is the author of Rethinking Community From Peru: Political Philosophy of Jose Maria Arguedas (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014).

Dr. Feldman holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and medieval literature and a Ph.D. in Latin American literature and cultural studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Lisa Fishbayn Joffe, a lecturer in philosophy and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, was appointed director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. She has been serving as interim director since July and has been on the staff at the institute since 2007.

Joffe holds degrees from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto and Harvard Law School. She is the co-editor of Women’s Rights and Religious Law: Domestic and International Perspectives (Routledge, 2016).