IWL is grateful to have an amazing team working at Marquette. Check out our Leadership Team, Student Interns & Support Staff, and Fall 2023 Faculty Fellows below!
Leadership Team
IWL Director — Jennica Webster, PhD
Professor of Management, College of Business Administration
Jennica Webster, PhD, is a distinguished scholar serving as the Director of the Institute of Women’s Leadership and Professor of Management. Her research centers on diversity and well-being, with a particular emphasis on exploring the unique challenges faced by women and marginalized communities in the workplace. Webster's current work explores how colleagues can be effective advocates for those who encounter identity-based oppression, the impact of identity-related social trauma on the experience of interpersonal workplace stress, and how leader family-to-work conflict bias can cause social isolation for women. Her research is published in leading academic journals and featured in top business outlets such as the Harvard Business Review. She is a Forbes contributor on issues related to DEI and her research has been recognized and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Webster is a recipient of the Fellows of the Academy of Management’s Award for Responsible Research in Management and Marquette’s Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award. She is passionate about teaching DEI to current and next-generation business leaders and provides consulting to companies working towards creating transformative environments through a lens of belonging, inclusion, and empathy.
IWL Coordinator — Sarah Camp, MCE
Sarah Camp (she/her/they) is a 2009 Business and 2012 Entrepreneurship alumna with a diverse set of skills and experience essential to supporting the smooth operation and foundation building of IWL. Most recently she served as AmeriCorps Director at Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge Reservation, where she also drove a school bus and was a part-time field researcher for the University of Colorado Denver—Anschutz Medical School’s Thiwáhe Gluwáš’akapi (TG) program. Prior to that, Camp grew her business acumen and leadership through various rising roles in retail management and events and sponsorship management in the outdoor industry. She is a life-long learner and hopes to continue her studies in law with a focus on mediation, as well as business and nonprofit support as she serves IWL.
IWL Co-Director — Leah Flack, PhD
Professor of English, College of Arts & Sciences
Leah Flack, PhD, is a Professor of English who has published two books and several articles emerging from her interest in the ways language and storytelling have facilitated powerful acts of self-expression and social rebellion in a global context, from the ancient world through the #metoo movement. The recipient of Marquette’s Raynor Award for Teaching Excellence, she is passionate about finding new ways to help students discover the value and joy of stories, including their own stories. A researcher in transnational modernism, she enjoys teaching classes on Russian and Irish literature, the epic tradition, and modern literature. She is a participant in the Ignatian Colleagues Program run by the AJCU to educate and immerse leaders from American Jesuit universities in the traditions and values of Jesuit and Catholic higher education. Dr. Flack serves as the faculty director for the campus chapter of the global nonprofit Narrative 4, where she serves on the National University Advisory Board. Prior to joining IWL, she was the chair of the English Department.
IWL Co-Director — Melissa Shew, PhD
Teaching Associate Professor of Philosophy, College of Arts & Sciences
Melissa Shew, PhD, is Teaching Associate Professor of Philosophy and the Senior Faculty Fellow (Assistant Director) of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Marquette. She teaches a wide range of classes in Philosophy, Honors, and Business and has a wide range of scholarly interests, from ancient Greek philosophy to our contemporary world. Recently, she edited and published Philosophy for Girls (OUP 2020) and is working on a related digital scholarship project, called The Persephone Project. She also recently gave a TEDx Talk, "Women and Intellectual Empowerment” (June 2021), to articulate ways that we can amplify, advocate for, and adore younger women and nonbinary people--and why it’s worth doing so. Another book project, On the Vocation of the Educator in This Moment, is coming out in November 2021 in association with MU Press. It features 24 chapters, most of which are written by women across campus from different departments. The book is a response to three crises of our time: the pandemic, racial injustice, and challenges in higher education. Dr. Shew also serves in a variety of ways at Marquette, from the Participating Faculty Task Force to the CfAH, Honors, and the Ignatian Year. She most loves building new projects with others.
Vice President of Research and Innovation – Jeanne Hossenlopp, PhD
Jeanne Hossenlopp, PhD, is Marquette University’s vice president for research and innovation. She is a professor of chemistry, served as vice provost for research and dean of the Graduate School from 2010-2015, was interim dean of the Klingler College of Arts and Sciences from 2008-2010, and was chair of the Department of Chemistry from 2004-2008.
Dr. Hossenlopp joined Marquette in 1989. That year she received a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award, a national award given to 10 new faculty in chemistry, biochemistry, or chemical engineering annually. Dr. Hossenlopp, who has taught chemistry at the undergraduate and graduate levels, was awarded the Rev. John P. Raynor, S.J., Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in 2003.
In her current role, Dr. Hossenlopp is charged with facilitating growth in campus research and scholarship, as well as working to build an inclusive culture of innovation that includes management of the university’s Explorer Challenge, the President’s Challenge, and the newly created campus Ideation Review Council. Dr. Hossenlopp has been involved in leading the university’s Beyond Boundaries Strategic Plan and serves as a campus leader for the plan's Research in Action theme. She oversees the work of the offices of Research Compliance and Research and Sponsored Programs, the Kohler Center for Entrepreneurship; the Marquette Women’s Innovation Network and the Institute for Women’s Leadership, research activities in the Athletics and Human Performance Research Center, as well as Marquette’s presence in the Global Water Center. She is the PI for Marquette’s NSF ADVANCE award, a million-dollar grant to create institutional transformation to support the success of women faculty in STEM-related fields. She is on the board of the Milwaukee Regional Innovation Center and is a member of the U.S. Council of Competitiveness’ Technology Leadership and Strategic Initiative. Dr. Hossenlopp is also a member of TEMPO Milwaukee and serves on the TEMPO Women’s Affinity Alliance advisory committee.
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Student Interns, RAs, & GAs
Carsen Murray
IWL Research Assistant
Carsen Murray is a student-athlete at Marquette and is in her final year of undergrad, pursuing a double major in Entrepreneurship and Marketing. She has been accepted into Marquette’s Accelerated Degree Program and will be working towards her MBA. Murray is a middle blocker for Marquette Women’s Volleyball Team and was named to the Big East’s All-Conference team as well as the AVCA All-Region team. Carsen was recently elected President of Marquette’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). Before being elected to this role, she was a member of SAAC’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Subcommittee. Carsen is passionate about giving back to the community and currently is the Content Curator for a local nonprofit organization called Milotso. Murray envisions that her contributions to IWL will uplift a new generation of marginalized groups as well as emphasize the importance of DEI education.
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Fall 2023 Faculty Fellows
Dr. Heather R. Hlavka (she/her/they)
Heather R. Hlavka, PhD, is Associate Professor of Criminology and Law Studies in the department of Social and Cultural Sciences. Her teaching and research interests include sexual violence, sex and gender, socio-legal studies, youth, trauma, and feminist embodiment and research ethics. An interdisciplinary scholar with a history of engaged scholarship and advocacy, her research portfolio includes both solo and collaborative projects on gender and violence. In 2012, she was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation to complete research published in her book (with Sameena Mulla) Bodies in Evidence: Race, Gender, and Science in Sexual Assault Adjudication (New York University Press, 2021) which was awarded the Senior Book Prize by the American Ethnological Society (2022) and Honorable Mention for the Senior Book Prize by the Association for Feminist Anthropology (2022). She is also co-editor (with April Petillo) of Research Gender-Based Violence: Embodied and Intersectional Approaches (New York University Press, 2022) and her other published work has been featured in Gender & Society, Law & Society, Law & Social Inquiry, Men and Masculinities, Violence Against Women, and in public outlets such as the Huffington Post, New Republic, Think Progress, Salon, Milwaukee NNS, the Melissa Harris-Perry Show, MSNBC and Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR). Her most recent work includes research on domestic violence during COVID-19 with Sojourner Family Peace Center and participatory action research on gender, trauma, and embodiment supported by the Institute for Women's Leadership (IWL) and Marquette’s Presidential Challenge Grant. She is affiliated research faculty and advisory board member for the IWL; Associate Fellow of SHaME; Co-Chair of the Social Action Committee, Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS); and on-call advocate for Marquette’s Sexual Assault Advocacy Network.
Dr. Jennifer Vanderheyden
Dr. Jessica Zemlak
Jessica L. Zemlak, PhD, MSN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, is an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing. She is a community-engaged researcher whose research examines the intersection of violence and the sexual and reproductive health of women who sell sex and women who use drugs. As a trained Advanced Practice Family Practice and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, Dr. Zemlak utilizes a trauma-informed lens to examine the impact of violence on the mental and physical health of marginalized women.
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