Transitions: Academic-Affairs Chief Will Lead a Florida College, Princeton Arts Center Appoints a Chair

Chief executives

Appointments

Tonya Drake, vice president for college relations and advancement at Edmonds Community College, will become chancellor of Western Governors University Washington on April 26. She will succeed Rich Cummins, who retired this year.

John C. Green, dean of the Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Akron, will become interim president on May 1. He will replace Matthew J. Wilson, who plans to step down.

Craig Johnson, executive director of South Dakota Public Universities and Research Center, will become president of Ridgewater College on July 1.

Georgia Lorenz, vice president for academic affairs at Santa Monica College, will become president of Seminole State College on August 1. She will succeed E. Ann McGee, who plans to step down after 22 years in the position.

Jennifer Methvin, president of Crowder College, will become chancellor of Arkansas State University at Beebe on July 1. She will replace Roger L. Moore, interim chancellor, who will return to his position as vice chancellor for finance and administration.

Miriam E. Nelson, deputy chief sustainability officer and director of the Sustainability Institute at the University of New Hampshire, will become president of Hampshire College on July 1. She will succeed Jonathan Lash, who plans to retire.

Kim Hunter Reed, executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, will become Louisiana’s Commissioner of Higher Education. Reed will be the first African-American to hold this position, and will succeed Joseph C. Rallo, who plans to step down on June 8.

Ronald S. Rochon, provost at the University of Southern Indiana, will become president on July 1. He will succeed Linda L.M. Bennett who plans to retire.

Marvin J. Suomi, former president, chief executive, and chairman of the engineering and real-estate development company Kajima International, will become president of Northland College.

Retirements

Henry N. Tisdale, president of Claflin University since 1994, plans to retire on June 30, 2019.

Chief academic officers

Appointments

Richard Badenhausen, dean of the Honors College at Westminster College, in Utah, has been appointed interim provost.

Brenda Kelly, interim provost of Gustavus Adolphus College, will become provost and dean of the faculty on May 1.

Christopher McNair, interim provost of Hardin-Simmons University, has been named provost.

Kara Monroe, vice president for academic innovation and support at Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, will become senior vice president and provost on July 1.

Other top administrators

Appointments

Cheryl Bascomb, director of marketing and business development for the public accounting and consulting firm BerryDunn, will become vice president for alumni relations at Dartmouth College on June 1.

Michael Benedik, vice provost at Texas A&M University, has been named chief international officer.

Gary Laermer, senior vice president and chief development officer of the YMCA of Greater New York, will become vice president for development and alumni relations at Pace University on April 30.

Patrick Minson, chief development officer for institutional advancement at Wagner College, will become vice president for development and alumni relations at the New York Institute of Technology on May 14.

Christine C. Sanni, vice president for communications and marketing at Tufts University, will become vice president for marketing and communications at Carthage College on April 30.

Deans

Appointments

Jacob Easley II, dean of the School of Education and Professional Studies at Eastern Connecticut State University, was appointed dean of the Touro College Graduate School of Education.

Wonsuk Ma, a professor of global Christianity in the graduate school at Oral Roberts University, will become dean of its College of Theology and Ministry on May 1.

Jacob H. Rooksby, an associate professor of law and associate dean of administration at Duquesne University School of Law, will become dean of Gonzaga University School of Law on June 1.

Chris Shao, associate dean of the College of Business Administration at Tarleton State University, will become dean on June 1.

Alicia Slater, professor and chair of biology and director of curriculum and assessment at Stetson University, will become dean of the School of Science at Marist College on July 1.

Allison Smith, an associate professor of art at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Art, will become dean of fine arts at California College of the Arts on August 1.

Denise A. Spangler, a professor of early childhood education and interim dean of the College of Education at the University of Georgia, will become dean on May 1.

Tina Takemoto, an associate professor at California College of the Arts, will become dean of humanities and sciences on August 1.

Department chairs

Appointments

S. Bruce Binder, an associate professor of family medicine and interim chair of the department of family medicine at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, will become chair of the department on April 1.

Leslie Kantor, vice president for education at the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, will become the inaugural chair of the department of urban-global public health at the School of Public Health at Rutgers University at Newark.

Margot Savoy, medical director of family medicine at the Christiana Care Health System, has become chair of the department of family and community medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University.

Tracy K. Smith, director of the creative writing program at Princeton University and current U.S. Poet Laureate, will become chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts on July 1, 2019.

Other administrators

Appointments

Anita Brackin, director of workforce development and education for the Greater Memphis Chamber, has been named associate vice president for workforce and economic development and continuing education at Southwest College.

Daniel Cleveland, executive director of major and planned gifts at Bradley University, will become assistant dean of advancement of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech.

James Delaney, professor of philosophy at Niagara University, has become director of the Rose Bente Lee Ostapenko Center for Ethics in Medicine and Healthcare.

Ryan Dwight, a faculty member in the College of Health and Human Services at Trident University International, has become the doctoral-studies director in Health Sciences.

David Groff, county counsel for Klamath County, Oregon, became the in-house legal counsel at the Oregon Institute of Technology on April 2.

Tina Hill, athletics director at Randolph College, will become executive director of athletics at Virginia Wesleyan University.

Kimberly Horn, associate dean of research at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, has been named associate vice president for clinical research collaboratives at Virginia Tech.

Andy Igonor, dean of the Ross College of Business, and Jonathan McCombs, dean of the College of Health and Public Administration, have taken on additional roles as co-directors of the Center for Public Safety and Cybersecurity Education at Franklin University.

George F. Kacenga, director of international enrollment management in the office of international affairs at the University of Colorado at Denver, will become executive director of global engagement at Purdue University Northwest on July 1.

Rodmon King, associate vice president for academic affairs and diversity initiatives at Centre College, will become chief diversity and inclusion officer at State University of New York College at Oswego on July 2.

Paula Szulc, director of assessment and accreditation at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, became associate commissioner for student success at the Rhode Island Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner on April 16.

Jermaine Truax, deputy director of athletics at Loyola University Chicago, will become director of athletics and recreation at Bucknell University on July 1.

Departures

Joanne Renn, executive director of athletics at Virginia Wesleyan University since 2007, plans to retire in June.

Stacy Sturgeon, Title IX director at Utah State University, has been removed from her position after an investigation found that the university had not adequately responded to accusations of sexual assault and harassment in the music department. She will remain at the university as an affirmative action/equal opportunity specialist.

Scott Westerman, associate vice president for alumni relations and executive director of the alumni association at Michigan State University, plans to resign on July 31. Westerman has been under investigation by the Title IX office, and his departure follows that of a number high-ranking administrators in relation to the handling of the sexual-assault complaints against Larry Nassar, who was a university doctor. Bob Thomas, assistant vice president for advancement marketing and communications, will be interim director of the alumni association.

Faculty

Appointments

David Biespiel, a faculty member in the Rainier Writers Workshop M.F.A. Program at Pacific Lutheran University, has been named the first poet-in-residence at Oregon State University.

Christopher Gabbitas, a member of the choral group the King’s Singers, has become a faculty member in the master-of-music-in-vocal-chamber-music program at University of Redlands’s School of Music.

Marie-Amélie George, a doctoral candidate in history at Yale University and former litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, will become an assistant professor of law at Wake Forest University School of Law in July.

Tayari Jones, an associate professor at Rutgers University at Newark and author of An American Marriage (Algonquin Books, 2018), will join the English faculty and creative-writing program at the College of Arts and Sciences at Emory University this fall.

Organizations

Appointments

Soumitra Dutta, professor of management and former dean of the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University, became chairman of the Board of Directors of the Global Business School Network on April 10.

Erin Justyna, director of the Center for Active Learning and Undergraduate Engagement at Texas Tech University, will become vice president for the Board of Directors for NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising in October 2018.

Terri Standish-Kuon, vice president for public affairs at the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities in New York, has been named president and chief executive of Independent Colleges of Washington.

Awards

Franklin Institute awards

The Franklin Institute honored the following scientists, engineers, inventors, and entrepreneurs for their achievements in their field. The awards were presented on April 19.

Adrian Bejan, professor of mechanical engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, received a Benjamin Franklin Medal for his work in thermodynamics, convection heat transfer, and constructal theory.

John B. Goodenough, professor and chair of engineering at Cockrell School of Engineering the University of Texas at Austin, received a Benjamin Franklin Medal for his work in the field of chemistry, and his discovery and development of lithium-cobalt oxide.

Helen Rhoda Quinn, professor emerita at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Stanford Linear Accelerator Center National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, received a Benjamin Franklin Medal for her work in the field of particle physics, focusing on the unified theory.

Manijeh Razeghi, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University, received a Benjamin Franklin Medal for her work in the field of electrical engineering, focusing on terahertz frequency sources.

Susan Trumbore, professor of earth-system science at the University of California at Irvine and director and scientific member at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, received a Benjamin Franklin Medal for her work in the field of earth and environmental science, focusing on radiocarbon measurements.

Other awards

Ellen Driscoll, visiting professor of studio arts and director of the Studio Arts Program at Bard College, received the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Educator Award for 2018.

Jan Fulton, professor and associate dean for graduate programs at the School of Nursing at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis, received the President’s Award and Educator of the Year Award from the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African-American research at Harvard University, received the 2018 Creativity Laureate Prize at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in recognition of his work across various fields, including genetic science, documentary filmmaking, and historical research.

Michael O’Rourke, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, received the James M. Delahay Award from the Board of Directors of the National Council of Structural Engineers Association.

David Peak, professor of physics at Utah State University, received the 2018 Council on Undergraduate Research-Goldwater Scholars Faculty Mentor Award.

Marielle Postava-Davignon, assistant professor of natural sciences and mathematics at Southern Vermont College, received the higher-education level 2018 Vernier and National Science Teachers Association Technology Award.

Alison Lawlor Russell, associate professor of political science and international relations at Merrimack College, received the Sidney D. Drell Academic Award from the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.

Deaths

C.F. Alan Cass, longtime basketball- and football-game announcer at the University of Colorado at Boulder, died on April 18. He was 77. Cass joined the university staff in 1959, first as a sound and lighting technician and stagehand at Macky Auditorium, followed by stage manager, then director. He later became director of the Coors Events and Conference Center. In 1969 he founded the Glenn Miller Archive, honoring the alumnus and famous big-band leader. He served as assistant director of the University Memorial Center from 1970 to 1979 and became assistant athletic director in 1996. He started announcing men’s basketball in 1965 and football in 1982 and announced his last games in 2011.

George Oster, a professor emeritus of environmental science, policy and management at the University of California at Berkeley, died on April 15. He joined the faculty at Berkeley in 1970. Oster received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1975 and a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 1985 for his work in biophysics.

Christine Floss, a research professor of physics at Washington University in St. Louis, died on April 19. She was 56. She served as a research adviser and was a leader at the Laboratory for Space Sciences.

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