Four Women Scholars Appointed to Endowed Professorships at Major Universities

Harshita Mruthinti Kamath was appointed to the Visweswara Rao and Sita Koppaka Professorship in Telugu and South Indian Cultures, Literatures and History at Emory University in Atlanta. Dr. Kamath will join the Emory faculty in the fall. She has been teaching religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Kamath holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in religion from Emory University. She also earned a master’s degree in theological studies at Harvard Divinity School.

Alena Kubatova was named the Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor at the University of North Dakota. She joined the chemistry department faculty at the university in 2005. Her research focuses on air pollution and its relation to global climate change.

Dr. Kubatova earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. at Charles University in Prague and did postdoctoral research at the University of Antwerp in Belgium and the Energy and Environment Research Center at the University of North Dakota.

Heather Woofter was chosen as the inaugural Sam and Marilyn Fox Professor in the School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the director of the College of Architecture and the Graduate School of Architecture & Design at the university. She has been on the university’s faculty since 2004.

Professor Woofter is a graduate of Virginia Tech, where she majored in architecture. She holds a master of architecture degree from the Havard Graduate School of Design.

Melinda J. Beeuwkes Buntin was appointed to the Mike Curb Chair for Health Policy at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She joined the faculty at Vanderbilt in 2013 after serving as deputy assistant director for health at the Congressional Budget Office.

Dr. Buntin is a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, where she majored in public and international affairs. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard University.