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News

Appointments, Resignations, Deaths (3/31/2017)

Compiled by Anais Strickland March 26, 2017
Tan Tai Yong
Tan Tai Yong

Chief executives

Appointments

The Rev. James Greenfield, provincial of the Wilmington-Philadelphia Province of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, will become president of DeSales University on January 1. Gerard Joyce, current vice president for student life, will begin serving as interim president in May, following the retirement of the Rev. Bernard O’Connor, who has led DeSales since 1999.

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Tan Tai Yong
Tan Tai Yong

Chief executives

Appointments

The Rev. James Greenfield, provincial of the Wilmington-Philadelphia Province of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, will become president of DeSales University on January 1. Gerard Joyce, current vice president for student life, will begin serving as interim president in May, following the retirement of the Rev. Bernard O’Connor, who has led DeSales since 1999.

Curtis McCray, who has worked as a consultant for Wright State University, will serve as its interim president until president- designate Cheryl Schrader takes office on July 1. Mr. McCray previously served as president of California State University at Long Beach and National Louis University. He steps into the role of David Hopkins, who resigned a few months earlier than he had planned to retire.

William Owen, former dean of medical sciences for American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, was named dean and chancellor of Ross University School of Medicine. He will replace Joseph Flaherty, who has served as dean for the past six years. Dr. Owen was previously chancellor and senior vice president for health affairs at the University of Tennessee.

Tracy Pellett, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the College of Coastal Georgia, was named president of Glenville State College. He will succeed Peter Barr, who will retire in June after 11 years at the helm. Mr. Pellett will start on July 1.

Brian Stogner became president of Rochester College on March 1. He had served as its interim president since last year and has taught at the college for 18 years. Mr. Stogner succeeds John Tyson, who left the college at the end of his contract term in July 2016.

Tan Tai Yong, executive vice president for academic affairs, will become president of Yale-NUS College, in Singapore, on July 1. He will replace the college’s founding president, Pericles Lewis, who will return to play a leadership role at Yale University in the fall.

Resignations

David Hopkins, president of Wright State University, resigned from that post on March 17, ahead of his planned retirement date of June 30.

Dave Wolk, who has served as president of Castleton University, in Vermont, since 2001, will step down in December.

Retirements

The Rev. Robert Niehoff, who has served as president of John Carroll University since 2005, plans to retire.

Chief academic officers

Appointments

Parviz Ansari, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, to provost and vice president for academic affairs at Westfield State University.

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Stacey Robertson, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Central Washington University, to provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York College at Geneseo.

Other top administrators

Appointments

The Rev. Mark Bosco, an associate professor of English and theology at Loyola University Chicago, to vice president for mission and ministry at Georgetown University.

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Daniel Forster, vice president for enrollment management at Washington College, to vice president for enrollment management at Westfield State University.

Zach Gorman, director of information technology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, to chief information officer at Bradley University.

Pericles Lewis, founding president of Yale-NUS College, in Singapore, will return to Yale University in the fall to serve as its vice president for global strategy and deputy provost for international affairs. Mr. Lewis was a professor of English and comparative literature at Yale before he left to lead the college in Singapore.

Alice Ruth, chief investment officer at Willett Advisors, to chief investment officer at Dartmouth College.

Deans

Appointments

Marcilynn Burke, associate dean at the University of Houston Law Center, to dean of the School of Law at the University of Oregon.

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Cathy Cox, a former Georgia Secretary of State who has served as president of Young Harris College since 2007, was appointed dean of the School of Law at Mercer University. She will start on July 1.

Kent Sandstrom, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at North Dakota State University, to dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Old Dominion University.

Yohuru Williams, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University, to dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas (Minn.).

Other administrators

Appointments

Harold Abrams, former vice president for institutional advancement at Lewis & Clark College, to associate vice president for development operations at the Clark College Foundation.

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Paul Borens, senior consultant at Ruffalo Noel Levitz, to affiliate director of Project Lead The Way — Wisconsin and director of STEM at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Lisa Mohanty, chair of the student-orientation and social-sciences department, to associate vice president for institutional effectiveness and new programs at Trident University International.

Retirements

Greg Boardman, who has served as Stanford University’s vice provost for student affairs since 2005, will retire on August 31.

Deaths

Jeffrey Okla Elliott, 39, an assistant professor of English at Misericordia University, died on March 19.

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Amanda Kinzer, 44, director of the dance program and an associate professor in the department of communication and theater arts at Old Dominion University, died on March 9.

The Rev. J. Donald Monan, 92, who served as president of Boston College for 24 years, died on March 18. Father Monan was instrumental in guiding the institution through a period of fiscal deficit and helping to increase student admissions and the college’s endowment, which grew to become one of the 40 largest endowments in the nation. He became the college’s first chancellor when he stepped down from the presidency in July 1996.

Derek Walcott, 87, a Nobel Prize-winning poet and playwright, died on March 17 in his home country, St. Lucia. Mr. Walcott taught poetry and playwriting at Boston University for 26 years. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992 and is known for poems such as “Omeros” and plays such as Dream on Monkey Mountain.

Send news for Gazette to people@chronicle.com.

A version of this article appeared in the March 31, 2017, issue.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
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