Four Women Professors Selected to Chair Departments in Academia

Natalie Sowell has been named chair of the department of theatre and performance at Spelman College, a women’s liberal arts institution in Atlanta, Georgia. Most recently, she served as director of the School of Theatre at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Earlier, she spent 16 years on the faculty at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her work specializes in applied theatre for social change, creative drama, critical literacy, and oral storytelling.

Professor Sowell holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and a master of fine arts degree in theater for youth from UNC Greensboro.

Jennifer M. Sacheck has been named chair of the department of behavioral and social sciences in the School of Public Health at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She comes to the Ivy League school from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, where she served as the Sanofi Professor of Prevention and Wellness and chair of the exercise and nutrition sciences department. With an emphasis on pediatric health disparities, she researches the effect of diet and physical activity on health outcomes.

Dr. Sacheck holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Syracuse University in New York, a master’s degree in exercise science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a Ph.D. in nutrition science from Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Christine B. Chung has been appointed chair of the department of radiology at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. She has been a faculty member with the institution for over 25 years. As a diagnostic radiologist, she specializes in musculoskeletal imaging. She is currently the director of the interdisciplinary Musculoskeletal Imaging Research Group, which focuses on cartilage imaging and tissue characterization with magnetic resonance imaging.

Dr. Chung received her medical degree from the University of Iowa.

Isabella Grumbach has been named chair of the department of internal medicine at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine and clinical service chief at OU Health. She comes to her new role after nearly two decades on the faculty at the University of Iowa, where she held the title of Kate Daum Endowed Professor in the departments of internal medicine and radiology. She has held several leadership roles throughout her tenure, including interim chair of internal medicine and vice chair of research. Her scholarship focuses on cardiovascular health.

Dr. Grumbach earned her medical degree and her Ph.D. in neuro-anatomy from Ruhr University Medical School in Bochum, Germany.