Highlighting female professors at UT in honor of Women’s History Month

Professors do much more than teach. They act as leaders, researchers, role models and mentors, playing a critical role in students’ development. In honor of Women’s History Month, The Daily Texan compiled a list of female UT professors and their accomplishments.

Dr. Gloria González-López

Dr. Gloria González-López, professor of sociology and the C.B. Smith Sr. Centennial Chair #1 in US-Mexico Relations, said her career spans from professional training as a therapist to becoming a sociologist and a professor publishing research.

“I feel special pride when I introduce myself as one of the feminist professors at UT,” González-López said.

At a young age, González-López felt inspired by the first feminist in her life: her mother. She began to research gender inequality, uncovering hundreds of stories of sexual violence against women that inspired her to focus on the sociology of sexuality and inequality.

González-López, who considers society her teacher, said to persevere with patience.

“I thought about leaving academia early,” she said. “It’s this idea of being more compassionate with myself and more patient with the process.”

Dr. Lizy John

Dr. Lizy John, a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department for over 25 years, teaches computer architecture and logic design. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and holds 16 patents.

She conducts research in computer performance evaluation and benchmarking and has received funding from the National Science Foundation, IBM, Intel, Dell, AMD and Meta.

“If (I had) one title for my entire research, it would be ‘Performance impact of emerging workloads,’” John said.

Today, fewer women than men make up the engineering department, and even fewer made up the department when John started. John spoke about the importance of perseverance.

“Don’t give up. There are many interesting problems to be solved in this world, and there are a lot of them,” John said. “Making a contribution requires hard work, but stay at it, and you will be able to do it.”

Dean Lillian Mills

Dean Lillian Mills, the first female dean of the McCombs School of Business, oversees 700 employees at the college. After working for multiple firms, she earned her Ph.D. to enter the “family business of academia” and worked at the University of Arizona for a decade before joining McCombs in 2006.

Last year, Mills won the American Accounting Association’s Outstanding Accounting Educator Award.

“What I’m personally proud of is how this award spanned my entire academic career,” Mills said. “I had taken time to mentor young research scholars nationally, even though they weren’t my students.”

Mills initially took up the role of Dean of McCombs when the department needed her to act as interim dean in 2020. She said her cheerfulness and positivity helped lead the college through COVID-19.

“When I was asked to be Interim Dean, I was mature enough to (know) that if they were asking me, they thought I could do it,” Mills said. “I became dean at a time where we needed both courage and optimism.”

Mills said gratitude, as an action, stands as her prime value in life.

“How do you live into gratitude?” Mills said. “You express to people not just thank you for what you did, but why it mattered.”