Transitions: Birmingham-Southern College Selects New President, New Provost Named at Kalamazoo College

Chief executives

Appointments

Daniel Coleman, former chief executive of the global financial services firm KCG Holdings and an adjunct professor of finance and member of the Board of Trustees of Birmingham-Southern College, will become president of the college on December 3. He will replace Bradley J. Caskey, who has been serving as interim president since Linda Flaherty-Goldsmith retired.

Robert A. Coons, acting president of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, has been named to the post permanently. He became acting chief upon Jim Conwell’s retirement on November 7. Before that, Coons was Rose-Hulman’s senior vice president and chief administrative officer.

Julie Murray-Jensen, vice president for enrollment and external affairs and executive director of the KCC Foundation at Klamath Community College, will become president of Blackburn College on January 14. She will replace Jennifer Braaten, who has served as interim president since John Comerford left to become president of Otterbein University.

Brian W. Caputo, vice president for administration and chief financial officer at the College of DuPage, will become interim president in January. He will replace Ann Rondeau, who will step down as president to lead the Naval Postgraduate School.

Kelli A. Chaney, dean of career education and workforce development and campus coordinator for Pikeville at Big Sandy Community and Technical College, will become president of Tennessee College of Applied Technology Knoxville on January 2. She will succeed Dwight E. Murphy, who held a dual role leading the Knoxville and Oneida/Huntsville campuses. He will remain as president of the Oneida/Huntsville campuses.

Thomas W. Krise, who stepped down as president of Pacific Lutheran University in May, became president of the University of Guam in August.

Rodney Reed, dean of Christian formation, university chaplain, and associate professor of theology at John Brown University, will become chancellor of Indiana Wesleyan University at Marion on February 1.

Diana Stithem, former executive vice president at Mohave Community College, has been named interim president. She will replace Michael Kearns, who plans to retire in 2019.

Chief academic officers

Appointments

Johnny Evans, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and a professor of chemistry at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, has been named provost and vice president for academic affairs at the College of Coastal Georgia.

James H. Garrett Jr., dean of the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, will become provost and chief academic officer on January 1.

Danette Ifert Johnson, vice provost at Ithaca College, will become provost at Kalamazoo College on July 1.

Anita Jones Thomas, dean of the College of Applied Behavioral Sciences at the University of Indianapolis, will become executive vice president and provost at St. Catherine University on June 3.

Other top administrators

Appointments

Merri Jo Bales, president and chief strategist at the consulting firm StratAlign 20/20, will become vice president and strategic director of university communications at Michigan State University on November 28.

Marco Barker, associate vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion and chief diversity officer at Westminster College, in Utah, will become the first vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln in April.

Joseph A. Brennan, vice president for communications and marketing at the University at Albany, will become vice president for communications and marketing at Montclair State University on January 2.

Lance Burchett, vice chancellor for development and alumni affairs and executive director of the Foundation Fund at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, will become vice president for advancement and chief executive of the Foundation at Kennesaw State University on December 12.

Natalie Milburn Doan, interim vice president for university advancement at Ohio Wesleyan University, has been named to the post permanently.

Saovra Ear, dean of student enrollment and financial aid services at Edmonds Community College, has been named interim vice president for student services at Highline College.

Greg Hartman, president of external and network support services at Seton Healthcare Family/Ascension Texas, has been named vice chancellor for strategic initiatives at the Texas A&M University system.

Leonard Pounds, deputy chief information officer at Nova Southeastern University, has been named vice president for clinical operations.

Deans

Appointments

David Atkins, head of branch libraries and collection logistics at the University of Tennessee libraries, will become dean of libraries at East Tennessee State University in January.

Marc Battista, interim dean of sustainability, business, and career technologies at Elgin Community College, will become associate vice president for workforce education and dean of business and career programs on January 7.

Mary Ellen Mahoney, executive director of graduate and extended-studies programs in the College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Joseph’s University, in Pennsylvania, has been named dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies at Becker College.

Jeffrey L. Stinson, associate dean of the College of Business at Central Washington University, will become dean of the college on January 1.

Other administrators

Appointments

Christopher Flannery, a professor of history and political science at Azusa Pacific University, will become executive director of the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University on January 1.

Brad Goodner, a professor of biology at Hiram College, has been named director of the college’s School of Health and Medical Humanities.

Nicolas Hirsch, an associate professor and chair of biology at Hiram College, has been named director of the college’s School of Science and Technology.

Anna K. Jensen, chief accountant and managing director of Financial Management Services at Indiana University, will become associate vice president and university controller on January 1.

Norm J. Jones, associate vice president for student development and dean of institutional diversity at Dickinson College, has been named associate chief diversity officer and deputy director in the Office of the Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity and Equity at Harvard University.

Ryan McDaniel, assistant director for identity and access management at the University of Colorado at Denver, has been named executive director of Security Identity Services Inc. at Virginia Tech.

Romeva Prcela, an assistant professor of accounting at Hiram College, has been named director of the college’s Scarborough School of Business and Communication.

Trudy Riley, executive director of the Office of Sponsored Programs at Georgia Institute of Technology, will become associate vice president for research and innovation, sponsored programs, at Virginia Tech on January 7.

Danny Shaha, senior director of the office of student conduct at Pennsylvania State University, has been named assistant vice president for student rights and responsibilities in the office of student affairs.

Carrie Tzou, an associate professor of educational studies at the University of Washington at Bothell, has been named director of the university’s Goodlad Institute for Educational Renewal.

Lydia Yeager, ticket sales manager at Millersville University, has been named the first director of operations for Student Services Inc. at the university.

Faculty

Appointments

Marnie Breckenridge, a soprano opera singer, will become a faculty member and lead a private studio at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

April Greiman, founder of the design practice Made in Space and former director of the graphic design program at the California Institute of the Arts, will become a professor of design at the University of Southern California Roski School of Art and Design in January.

David Sinacore, a professor at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, has been named a professor of physical therapy at High Point University.

Frederica von Stade, a mezzo-soprano opera singer, will become a coach in the voice department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Physics-Teachers Awards

The American Association of Physics Teachers recognized the following faculty members.

Janelle M. Bailey, an assistant professor in the College of Education at Temple University; Heather Lewandowski, an associate professor an associate chair and director of the engineering physics program at the University of Colorado at Boulder; Sherry Savrda, a professor of physics at Seminole State College; Aaron Titus, professor and chair of physics at High Point University; and Robert Teese, a professor of physics at the Rochester Institute of Technology, will receive 2019 Homer L. Dodge Citations for Distinguished Service to the American Association of Physics Teachers.

Gay Stewart, a professor of STEM Education and director of the Center for Excellence in STEM Education at West Virginia University, will receive the 2019 Hans Christian Oersted Medal for the quality of her teaching and national leadership in physics education.

Organizations

Appointments

Ray Holmberg, a North Dakota state senator, has been named chair of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

Steven Leath, president of Auburn University, has been named secretary of the Council of Presidents of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.

Retirements

David L. Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities since 1993, plans to retire on June 30.

Deaths

Lynne Goodstein, a professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, died on November 5. She was 70. Her research subjects included higher education and high-achieving college students, and women and crime.

Willie Lloyd Harriford Jr., founder of the African-American studies program at the University of South Carolina, died on November 14. He was 83. Harriford was the university’s first black administrator. He eventually served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. After retiring from the university, he taught as an adjunct professor at Benedict College.

Peter Kaufman, a professor of sociology at the State University of New York at New Paltz, died of lung cancer on November 19. He was 51. Since joining the faculty in 1999, he explored a variety of topics in sociology and recently published Teaching With Compassion: An Educator’s Oath to Teach From the Heart (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018) with co-author Janine Schipper. Kaufman used his diagnosis as a teaching opportunity, and was interviewed for a public discussion, “On Death and Dying,” held at the university in October.

Sister Camille Kliebhan, chancellor of Cardinal Stritch University, died on November 17. She was 95. Kliebhan came to the university in 1955 as a faculty member, later serving as director of student teaching, dean of students, chair of the graduate division, vice president for academic and student affairs, then president from 1974 to 1991.

Dolores Sands, former dean of the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing, died on October 22. She was 88. Sands served as dean from 1989 until her retirement in 2009.

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