Transitions: CUNY Campus Selects New President, U. of Virginia Names Stanford’s Law Dean as Provost

Chief executives

Appointments

David H. Crawford, interim president of McCormick Theological Seminary for the past year, has been named to the position permanently.

Robert O. Davies, president at Murray State University since 2014, will become president of Central Michigan University on September 1. He will succeed George E. Ross, who stepped down at the end of July.

Peter C. Fackler, recent interim president at Clarion University, has been named interim president of Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. He will replace Scott Barton, who will become senior vice president for administration and finance at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.

Rachelle Karstens, interim president of Briar Cliff University since last summer, was named to the post permanently. Karstens, who is a lawyer, joined the university as chief of staff last year and took the interim role after Hamid Shirvani resigned.

James B. Milliken, former chancellor of the City University of New York, has been named the sole finalist to be chancellor of the University of Texas system. If appointed, he will succeed William H. McRaven, who stepped down at the end of May.

Claudia V. Schrader, provost and senior vice president for academic and student success at City University of New York Bronx Community College, will become president of CUNY’s Kingsborough Community College on September 15.

Mary Karsten Surridge, vice president for advancement at North Park University, will become president. She will replace Carl E. Balsam, who has served as interim president for the past year.

Resignations

Tom Sullivan, president of the University of Vermont, plans to step down next summer.

Retirements

Don LeDuc, president and dean of Western Michigan University Cooley Law School since 2002, plans to retire this month. Jeffrey Martlew, former associate dean of the school, will become interim president beginning in September.

David E. Daniel, deputy chancellor of the University of Texas system and a former president of the University of Texas at Dallas, will retire at the end of this month.

Chief academic officers

Appointments

M. Elizabeth Magill, dean of Stanford University’s Law School, will become provost at the University of Virginia in the summer of 2019.

Donna H. Oliver, a former president of Mississippi Valley State University, was appointed provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Edward Waters College.

Other top administrators

Appointments

Mary Aguayo, director of transfer relations at the University of Wyoming, has been named vice president for strategic enrollment management at the University of La Verne.

Phyllis Carter, chief business officer and director of business and administrative services at Laney College, became vice president for administration and finance and chief financial officer at San Francisco State University on June 1.

Dennis Devery, vice president for planning and research at Thomas Edison State University, has been named vice president for enrollment management.

Bryan Garey, assistant vice president of human resources for talent at the University of Virginia, will become vice president for human resources at Virginia Tech on September 17.

Jeff Hollingsworth, interim vice president and chief information officer at the University of Maryland at College Park, has been named to the position permanently.

Mike Mathews, associate vice president of technology and innovation at Oral Roberts University, has been named vice president for technology and innovation.

Terry Morello, interim vice president for advancement and external affairs at the California Institute of the Arts, has been named to the position permanently.

Nancy E. Paton, vice president for communications at the University at Buffalo, will become vice president for strategic communications and marketing at the University of Florida on October 1.

Debra J. Pérez, chief officer for measurement, evaluation, and learning at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, will become the first senior vice president for organizational culture, inclusion, and equity at Simmons University on September 5.

James Pottorff, who retired last fall as general counsel at the University of Kansas, will become vice president and general counsel of the University of Nebraska on September 10.

J. Michael Segawa, former interim dean of students at the University of Nevada at Reno, became vice president for student affairs at Pitzer College this month.

Dwayne Walker, interim vice president for enrollment management at Delaware Valley University, has been named to the position permanently.

E. Michael Zubey Jr., associate general counsel at Villanova University, will become vice president and general counsel on August 17.

Resignations

Bob Groves, vice president for university advancement at Michigan State University, says he will resign, effective November 2. Groves has held the position since 2009 and will stay on through the end of a campaign that has raised $1.67 billion, surpassing its initial $1.5-billion goal.

Deans

Appointments

Peter Aghimien, a professor and chair of the accounting program at Indiana University at South Bend, became dean of the Jesse H. Jones School of Business at Texas Southern University on July 16.

Lulu Blacksmith, director of government and community engagement at Waubonsee Community College, has been named dean of student and community engagement.

Dylan Clyne, chair of biology at Post University, has been named dean of the School of Arts and Sciences.

Rita Croom, corporate vice president and chief experience officer at RCCH HealthCare Partners in Tennessee, has been named dean of the College of Health Professions and assistant vice president for academic partnerships at the University of Mobile.

Kathleen Gorski, assistant dean of outcomes assessment at Waubonsee Community College, has been named dean of learning outcomes, curriculum, and program development.

Dan Grooms, professor and chair of large-animal clinical sciences at Michigan State University, will become dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University on October 1.

Sonya Hardin, associate dean of graduate programs and professor in the College of Nursing at East Carolina University, has been named dean of the School of Nursing at University of Louisville.

Craig J. Newschaffer, associate dean for research in the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University, will become dean of the College of Health and Human Development at Pennsylvania State University at University Park on January 1.

Laura Ortiz, dean of social sciences, education, and world languages at Waubonsee Community College, has been named dean of faculty development and engagement.

Agnes Zak-Moskal, director of student success at Villa Maria College, has been named dean of student affairs.

Department chairs

Appointments

Thomas Fekete, interim chair of medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, has been named to the position permanently.

Israel Liberzon, professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, has been named head of psychiatry at the College of Medicine at Texas A&M University.

Ann Rivera, an assistant professor of English at Villa Maria College, has been named chair of liberal arts and professional studies.

Other administrators

Appointments

Bharat Anand, professor of business administration and faculty chair of the Business School at Harvard University, will become vice provost for advances in learning in October.

Wendy Bolger, director of innovation strategy for Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign, has been named director of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Loyola University Maryland.

Dave Davis, director of state and local relations at Northwestern University, will become executive director for neighborhood and community relations on September 1.

Elizabeth Kerr, an academic coach and student success coordinator at Villa Maria College, has been named director of student success.

Douglas M. Koyle, assistant vice president for student life at Ohio State University, has been named associate dean for student success at Ohio Wesleyan University.

Eva W. Lewis, assistant provost for strategy and executive director for the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Institutional Research at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, became vice provost for institutional effectiveness and academic planning at the University of Alabama at Birmingham this month.

Kimberly M. Lowery, associate vice president for academic affairs and student success at Eastfield College, will become associate vice chancellor for student engagement and success at Houston Community College on September 4.

Kimberly D. McCorkle, interim vice provost at the University of West Florida, became vice provost on August 8.

Melissa Nergard, director of sustainability at Illinois State University, will become the first full-time director of sustainability at the University of Wisconsin at Madison on Monday.

Elizabeth Ott, interim curator of rare books in the Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been named to the position permanently.

Cris Perkins, athletics development officer at the University of North Georgia, has been named assistant vice chancellor for strategic advancement at the College System of Tennessee.

Scott Peska, dean of students at Waubonsee Community College, has been named assistant vice president for student services.

Stratos Pistikopoulos, a research professor in the department of chemical engineering at Texas A&M University at College Station, has been named director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute.

Hallema Sharif, interim executive director of communications for Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts in Qatar, became public-relations and communications director for the Office for Inclusion and Diversity at Virginia Tech on August 8.

Greg Smogard, director of the Innovators for the Americas program in the Center for International Business Education and Research at the University of Miami Business School, has been named innovation and business-development officer at the University of South Florida-Sarasota/Manatee.

Retirements

Darlene Biggers, associate vice president for student services at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, plans to retire this month after 23 years of service.

Faculty

Appointments

Roger Edelen, an associate professor in the Graduate School of Management at the University of California at Davis, has been named an associate professor of finance, insurance, and business law at Virginia Tech.

Awards

Najiba Benabess, dean of the Tabor School of Business at Millikin University, received the 2018 Academy for Global Business Advancement Fellow Award.

Organizations

Appointments

Ashley Finley, associate vice president for academic affairs and dean of the Dominican experience at Dominican University of California, will become senior adviser to the president and secretary to the board of the Association of American Colleges and Universities in September.

Deaths

John Buechner, president of University of Colorado from 1995 until 2000, died on July 28. He was 82. Prior to his tenure as president, he served as chancellor of the university’s Denver campus from 1988 to 1995 and as mayor of Boulder from 1970 to 1971.

Sister Kathleen Burke, a faculty member in counseling and art therapy at Ursuline College from 1972 to 2016, died on July 24. She was 82.

Jerome Cochran, executive vice chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh from 1995 to 2014, died on August 1. He was 69. He also served as the university’s general counsel from 2004 to 2013. During his tenure, Cochran played a key part in coordinating the university’s response to a shooting and bomb threats in 2012, as well as overseeing the physical transformation of the university’s campuses. After his retirement, the Jerome Cochran Public Safety Building was named in his honor.

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