New Assignments in Higher Education for Five Women Scholars

Lainie Rutkow has been named the inaugural vice provost for interdisciplinary initiatives at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She has been serving as senior adviser to the president for strategic initiatives. Dr. Rankow is also a professor in the department of health policy and management in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a joint appointment in the School of Medicine.

Professor Rutkow earned a master of public health degree and a Ph.D. from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins. She also holds a juris doctorate from New York University.

Marilyn J. Cipolla was appointed chair of the department of electrical and biomedical engineering at the University of Vermont. She is a professor in the department of neurological sciences with joint appointments in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences, and in pharmacology.

Dr. Cipolla holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology, all from the University of Vermont.

Rutgers University-Newark has appointed Salamishah Tillet as executive director of Express Newark, a center for socially engaged art and design. She is the Henry Rutgers Professor of African American and African Studies and Creative Writing and the founding director of New Arts Justice, an initiative for Black feminist approaches to public art in the City of Newark. Professor Tillet is the author of In Search of The Color Purple: The Story of an American Masterpiece (Harry Abrams, 2022).

Dr. Tillet is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in English and Afro-American studies. She holds a master’s degree from Brown University and a second master’s degree n English and a Ph.D. in the history of American civilization from Harvard University.

Sharon Hall, a research professor of ecology in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University was named a President’s Professor at the university. Her research explores the ecology of native and managed ecosystems that sustain people and other organisms within the community of life.

Dr. Hall is a graduate of Stanford University, where she majored in biological sciences. She holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley.

Marcelle Haddix, Distinguished Dean’s Professor of Literacy, Race, and Justice in reading and language arts at Syracuse University in New York, has been given the added duties of associate provost for strategic initiatives at the university. She is the author of Cultivating Racial and Linguistic Diversity in Literacy Teacher Education: Teachers Like Me (Routledge, 2015).

Dr. Haddix is a graduate of Drake Univerity in Des Moines, Iowa, where she majored in secondary education and English. She holds a master’s degree in adult education from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, and a Ph.D. in education from Boston College.