Transitions: Bentley U. Selects First Black President, Northern Arizona U. Names New President

CHIEF EXECUTIVES
Appointments
Cynthia Anthony, interim president of Lawson State Community College since September 2020, has been named to the post permanently.

E. LaBrent Chrite, president of Bethune-Cookman University, has been named president of Bentley University. He will become the university’s first Black president on June 1. He will succeed Alison Davis-Blake, who stepped down last year.

Carlos O. Cortez, president of the San Diego College of Continuing Education, has been named chancellor of the San Diego Community College District. He will succeed Constance M. Carroll.

Gary B. Crosby, vice president for student affairs at Alabama A&M University, has been named president of Saint Elizabeth University. He will be the first African American and first male president of the university. He will succeed Helen J. Streubert, who will retire in June.

José Luis Cruz, executive vice chancellor and university provost at the City University of New York, has been named president of Northern Arizona University. He will succeed Rita Cheng, who plans to step down.

Bennie L. Harris, senior vice president for institutional advancement at the Morehouse School of Medicine, will become chancellor of the University of South Carolina Upstate on July 1.

Kathy Humphrey, senior vice chancellor for student engagement at the University of Pittsburgh, will become president of Carlow University on July 1.

Edward Inch, provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University-East Bay, will become president of Minnesota State University at Mankato.

Cindy R. Jebb, a U.S. Army brigadier general and dean of the academic board at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, will become president of Ramapo College of New Jersey in July. She will succeed Peter P. Mercer, who plans to retire.

D. Michael Lindsay, president of Gordon College, will become president of Taylor University on August 16. He will replace Paige Comstock Cunningham, who has served as interim president since August 2019.

Diana Lovell, vice chancellor for student services, dean of social sciences, and a professor of history at Blinn College District, will become president of Southwestern Oklahoma State University on July 1.

Mike Muñoz, vice president for student services at Long Beach City College, has been named interim superintendent-president.

Deidra Peaslee, interim president of Saint Paul College since July 2019, has been named to the post permanently.

Beck A. Taylor, president of Whitworth University, will become president of Samford University on July 1. He will succeed Andrew Westmoreland, who plans to retire.

Resignations
M. David Rudd, president of the University of Memphis since 2014, plans to step down in May 2022.

Retirements
David L. Eisler, president of Ferris State University, plans to retire in June 2022.

CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICERS
Appointments
Mark L. Kornbluh, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, has been named provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Wayne State University.

Bill McCoy, interim academic dean at Eastern Nazarene College, has been named vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college.

Karen Riley, dean of Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver, has been named provost at Regis University.

OTHER TOP ADMINISTRATORS
Appointments
K. Niles Bryant, director of investments at Bowdoin College, will become senior vice president and chief investment officer on July 1.

Lowell K. Davis, associate vice chancellor for student success at Western Carolina University, has been named vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Anita Fernández, director and assistant dean of Prescott College Tucson, has been named the first chief diversity officer at Prescott College.

David J. Fraboni II, interim vice president for university advancement at Wentworth Institute of Technology, has been named vice president for university advancement at Trine University.

Yvonne Gaudelius, interim vice president and dean of undergraduate education at Pennsylvania State University at University Park, has been named to the post permanently.

Shawna Patterson-Stephens, associate vice chancellor for student affairs and director of the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will become vice president and chief diversity officer at Central Michigan University on June 1.

Desiree Polk-Bland, executive dean for advising and student support at Columbus State Community College, has been named vice president for student affairs.

Steven D. Shapiro, executive vice president and chief medical and scientific officer of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and president of its Health Services Division, will become the first senior vice president for health affairs at the University of Southern California on May 15.

T. Shá Duncan Smith, assistant vice president and dean of inclusive excellence and community development at Swarthmore College, will become the first vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion and chief diversity officer at Santa Clara University on July 1.

Susan S. Smyth, chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and the director of the Gill Heart and Vascular Institute the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky, will become executive vice chancellor and dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences on June 1.

Al Sturgeon, vice president of student life and dean of students at Lipscomb University, has been named vice president for diverse and equitable student life and dean of students at Blackburn College.

Mary J. Wardell-Ghirarduzzi, chief diversity executive at the University of San Francisco, has been named the inaugural vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion at University of the Pacific.

Jennifer Winge, dean of admissions at the College of Wooster, will become vice president for enrollment on July 1.

Resignations
Dave Lewis, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at the University of Rochester, plans to step down at the end of June.

DEANS
Appointments
Bárbara Brizuela, dean of academic affairs in arts and sciences at Tufts University, will become dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences on January 1, 2022.

Todd Butler, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Washington State University, has been named to the post permanently.

Christina Christie, interim dean of the School of Education & Information Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles, has been named to the post permanently.

Michelle (Shelli) Collins, a professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Nursing at Rush University, has been named dean of the College of Nursing and Health at Loyola University New Orleans.

Cristina Goletti, chair and an associate professor in the theater and dance department at the University of Texas at El Paso, has been named dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts at the University of Northern Colorado.

Felipe Henao, assistant dean of student affairs at Mercy College, has been named dean of students at the New York Institute of Technology.

Brian Kessler, vice president, dean, and chief academic officer in the DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine Lincoln Memorial University, has been named dean of the Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine at Campbell University.

Veronica McComb, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Lenoir-Rhyne University, has been named dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Bryant University.

Chavonda J. Mills, a professor and chair of the department of chemistry, physics and astronomy at Georgia College and State University, will become dean of the School of Science and Technology at Georgia Gwinnett College on July 1.

David Nirenberg, interim dean of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago since 2018, has been named to the post permanently.

Scott Edward Rutledge, associate dean of faculty affairs in the College of Public Health at Temple University, will become dean of the College of Health at Ball State University on July 1.

Sara Sanders, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Iowa since July 2020, has been named to the post permanently.

Darryl Scriven, dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, Business, and Education at Winston-Salem State University, has been named dean of the School of Arts & Sciences at Clarkson University.

David C. Wilson, senior associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Delaware, will become dean of the Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley on July 1.

Lin Zhan, dean of the Loewenberg College of Nursing at the University of Memphis, will become dean of the School of Nursing at the University of California at Los Angeles on August 1.

DEPARTMENTS CHAIRS
Appointments
Racquel Ingram, a completion coordinator for the RN-BSN program at North Carolina A&T State University, has been named founding chair and an assistant professor for the department of nursing in the Congdon School of Health Sciences at High Point University.

Christopher Wares, a program coordinator and instructor at Trebas Institute in Montreal, Canada, has been named assistant chair of the music business/management department at Berklee College of Music.

OTHER ADMINISTRATORS
Appointments
Mary Jo Callan, director of the Edward Ginsberg Center at the University of Michigan, will become executive director of the Swearer Center and associate dean for engaged scholarship at Brown University on May 17.

Courtney Gillette, assistant director of the Center for Publishing in the School of Professional Studies at New York University, has been named director of the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College.

S. Brian Jones, a writer and former teacher-in-residence at the Delaware Theater Company, has been named assistant dean of diversity and equity in the arts in the Dyson College of Arts and Science at Pace University.

Scott Kuttenkuler, vice president for student affairs at Southeast Arkansas College, has been named assistant vice chancellor for the Saline County Career and Technical Campus at Arkansas State University Three Rivers.

Denis Simon, a professor of the practice in the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and former executive vice chancellor of Duke Kunshan University, has been named executive director of the Center for Innovation Policy in the Duke University School of Law.

Angela Winfield, associate vice president for inclusion and work-force diversity at Cornell University, has been named chief diversity officer of the Law School Admission Council.

Resignations
Les Miles, head football coach at the University of Kansas, will step down. Miles was placed on administrative leave after accusations of inappropriate behavior toward female students when he was at Louisiana State University.

FACULTY
Appointments
Cornel West, a professor of the practice of public philosophy at the Harvard Divinity School and in the department of African and African American studies in the Faculty of Arts of Sciences at Harvard University, will leave to join the faculty at Union Theological Seminary after threatening to leave Harvard over a tenure dispute.

Departures
Charlie Kirk, founder of the youth organization Turning Point USA, did not have his contract renewed by Liberty University. Kirk had been working with the former Liberty president, Jerry Falwell Jr., at a think tank they set up together.

ORGANIZATIONS
Appointments
Debbie Cochrane, executive vice president at the Institute for College Access & Success, has been nominated to lead California’s Bureau of Private Postsecondary Education.

Cristine Delnevo, director of the Rutgers Center for Tobacco Studies and a professor of health behavior, society, and policy at the Rutgers University School of Public Health, has been appointed to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee.

Mary B. Marcy, president of Dominican University of California, has been named to the Board of Trustees of the American Public University System.

DEATHS
Carola Eisenberg, a former dean at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School, died on March 11. She was 103. Eisenberg served as the first female dean of student affairs at MIT from 1972 to 1978 and the first female dean of student affairs at Harvard Medical School from 1978 to 1990. She also helped found Physicians for Human Rights and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

Eugene Hughes, former president of Northern Arizona University, died on March 10. He was 86. Hughes led the university from 1979 to 1993.

Lynn K. Mytelka, a pioneering scholar in international development, longtime professor at universities in Canada and Europe, senior administrator of United Nations organizations, and frequent collaborator with scores of colleagues worldwide, died on February 17. She was 78. Mytelka served as a research associate at Harvard University before leaving the United States to teach at Carleton University in Ottawa.

The Rev. Scott Pilarz, president of the University of Scranton, died of complications related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on March 10. He was 61. Pilarz announced his diagnosis in 2018 and planned to step down at the end of the 2020-21 academic year.