New Assignments for Five Women Faculty Members

Lisa Portes is the new chair of the department of theatre and dance at the University of California, San Diego. Most recently she served as head of the master of fine arts degree program in directing at DePaul University in Chicago.

Portes attended Oberlin College in Ohion where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in theater. She received a Fulbright Scholarship to Colombia and earned a master of fine arts degree in directing from the University of California, San Diego.

Amalia Leifeste, associate professor of historic preservation in the School of Architecture at Clemson University in South Carolina, has been named director of graduate programs in historic preservation. She has been with the historic preservation program at Clemson since 2013.

Leifeste holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Oregon. She earned a master of architecture degree from the University of Texas.

Dawn M. Turner, associate professor of management at Oakwood University in Alabama, was given the additional duties of assistant vice president for research and faculty development and director of adult and continuing education. Her scholarly pursuits have centered around knowledge management in federal contexts.

Dr. Turner is a graduate of Oakwood University. She earned a doctorate of management degree from the University of Maryland.

Paula Cohen, a professor of genetics at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, was given the added duties of associate dean for research and graduate education. She joined the faculty at Cornell University in 2004. Dr. Cohen was promoted to the rank of associate professor in 2007 and to full professor in 2013. In 2018, she became associate vice provost for life sciences.

Dr. Cohen obtained a Ph.D. in reproductive physiology in 1992 at the University of London in England, where she studied the endocrine regulation of implantation.

Caroline Ajo-Franklin, a professor of biosciences, bioengineering, and chemical and biomolecular engineering at Rice University in Houston, Texas, was named director of the new Rice Synthetic Biology Institute. Synthetic biology is an interdisciplinary discipline where researchers design living systems with new properties to address societal needs.

Professor Ajo-Franklin is a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, where she majored in chemistry. She holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University.