News by Topic: Women

WHEC-TV features Jacqueline Nicholson, executive director of Intercollegiate Athletics.

More than 200 international students began their studies at RIT remotely in fall 2020, including 65 undergraduate students and 159 master’s students. RIT Admissions officials said the students have done remarkably well given the challenging circumstances, and 83 percent of those students are now studying at RIT’s campus in Henrietta.

RIT Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Twyla Cummings will retire from RIT effective June 30. Cummings oversaw the evolution of the Office of Graduate Education to the RIT Graduate School in support of RIT’s Strategic Plan 2018-2025, and RIT added five new Ph.D. programs during her tenure.

Associate Professor Moumita Das is part of a team of researchers that was recently awarded a $1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation to design and create next-generation materials inspired and empowered by biological cells. The team’s goal is to create self-directed, programmable, and reconfigurable materials—using biological building blocks including proteins and cells—that are capable of producing force and motion.

Elena Rakhimova-Sommers, principal lecturer in RIT’s Department of English, has taught Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel, Lolita, in her Dangerous Texts course for many years. As the #MeToo movement gained strength and global attention in 2018, however, the novel became particularly relevant.

To help address a lack of diversity, as well as gaps in AI curricula, RIT was awarded a grant of nearly $2 million by the NSF to create a new research traineeship program for graduate students

The $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has expanded RIT’s accredited Priority Behavioral Health and Clinical Psychology Internship program to focus on delivering integrated care for young clients who struggle with substance use, mental health issues, and trauma from exposure to high rates of violence within the community.

W. Michelle Harris, an associate professor in RIT’s School of Interactive Games and Media, has had her piece In Their Wake, an interactive digital memorial to the forgotten Black people who developed Rochester, selected for the 67th Rochester-Finger Lakes Exhibition, the region’s longest-running juried exhibition. Harris is one of 28 members of the RIT community who had pieces selected for the exhibition.

Guiping Hu recently began her new role as the sustainability department head at Golisano Institute for Sustainability. Hu arrived on campus from Iowa State University, where she served on the faculty of the Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering department.

The thousands of students who belong to the more than 300 clubs and organizations at RIT face fewer restrictions this semester when gathering to play a sport, sing, dance, do community service work, or discuss common topics of interest. On Saturday, representatives from more than 230 of RIT’s student clubs and organizations attended the Tiger Activities Fair.

WXXI’s “Connections” program features Enid Cardinal, senior advisor to the president for strategic planning and sustainability, and Kimie Romeo, adjunct professor of environmental management.

LaVerne McQuiller Williams, professor and current interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts, has been named associate provost for Faculty Affairs at the university, effective Sept. 1. In this role, McQuiller Williams will oversee the Office of Faculty Affairs, within the Office of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.