President Suzanne M. Rivera and Provost Lisa Anderson-Levy are pleased to announce that five professors have been named endowed chairs.
These appointments take effect on September 1, 2026.
“I’m honored to work with amazing faculty who are prolific scholars and who maintain active research agendas while remaining deeply committed to service at the college,” says Anderson-Levy. “They are skilled educators and mentors who challenge and support students inside and outside the classroom.”
The following faculty members were appointed:
Sarah Boyer — O.T. Walter Professor of Biology
Professor Boyer holds a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College, a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD from Harvard University. Her lab studies the evolution of mite harvesters (tiny arachnids) in New Zealand, supported by a National Science Foundation grant. She and her students also study the reproductive biology of local daddy long-legs found on campus and at Ordway Field Station.
Darcy Burgund — (inaugural) Weingarden Professor of Neuroscience
Professor Burgund has a bachelor’s degree from Skidmore College and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on visual cognition and memory, especially how people recognize objects, using methods such as divided-visual-field tasks and functional magnetic resonance imaging to study brain activity.
Julie Dolan — Mitau Professor of Political Science
Professor Dolan earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Olaf College and a PhD from American University. She has since written or co-written several books, including Representative Bureaucracy: Classic Readings and Continuing Controversies (with David H. Rosenbloom) and four editions of Women and Politics: Paths to Power and Political Influence (with Melissa Deckman and Michele Swers).
Duchess Harris — DeWitt Wallace Professor of American Studies
Professor Harris holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a PhD from the University of Minnesota, and a Juris Doctor from the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. In 2026, she published two books: Black Feminist Politics: From the Voting Rights Act to the Kamala Harris Vice Presidency (1965–2025) and Meghan Markle: Essays on Monarchy, Race, and Colonialism, co-authored with Julie Schwietert Collazo. Among several local and national roles, Professor Harris has also served as the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commissioner.
Chris Wells — John Holl Professor of Environmental Studies
Professor Wells has a bachelor’s degree from Williams College and master’s and PhD degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the author of Car Country: An Environmental History and Nature’s Crossroads: The Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota (co-edited with George Vrtis). He is also the editor of Environmental Justice in Postwar America: A Documentary Reader.