Transitions: Delaware State U. Provost to Succeed the University’s First Female President

Chief executives

Appointments

Tony Allen, provost and executive vice president at Delaware State University, will become president on January 1. He will succeed Wilma Mishoe, who plans to retire.

Nancy H. Blattner, president of Caldwell University and a former vice president and dean of academic affairs at Fontbonne University, will become president of Fontbonne in July 2020. She will succeed J. Michael Pressimone, who plans to step down.

Byron Breland, chancellor of the San Jose-Evergreen Community College District, has assumed the duties of president of Evergreen Valley College on an interim basis. He replaces Keith Aytch, who has been placed on leave.

Christina Drale, interim executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock since October 2018, has been named acting chancellor. She replaces Andrew Rogerson, who stepped down on September 1.

E. Joseph Lee II, interim president of Spring Hill College since 2018, has been named to the post permanently.

Nick Nissley, executive director at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, a K-12 magnet school in Cincinnati, has been named the sole finalist for president of Northwestern Michigan College. He is expected to replace Timothy J. Nelson, who plans to retire on December 31.

Resignations

Edward Burger, president of Southwestern University, in Texas, will step down in January to become president and chief executive of St. David’s Foundation, a health-care foundation focusing on health and education.

Maria Harper-Marinick, chancellor of the Maricopa County Community College District since 2016, will step down when her contract ends in May.

Cynthia Jackson-Hammond, president of Central State University since 2012, plans to step down at the end of the 2019-20 academic year.

Robert L. Wyatt, president of Coker University since 2009, has stepped down at the request of the Board of Trustees.

Retirements

David Hinds, president of Victoria College since 2015, plans to retire on September 1, 2020.

Wilma Mishoe, president of Delaware State University since July 2018, plans to retire on December 31. She is the first woman to lead the university.

Chief academic officers

Appointments

Donnie Auvenshine, dean of the School of Christian Studies at Howard Payne University, has been named vice president for academic affairs.

Wendy Hensel, interim provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Georgia State University since July, has been named to the post permanently.

Resignations

June Youatt, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Michigan State University, has stepped down following a federal investigation into the university’s handling of the sexual-abuse case against Larry Nassar as well as conduct by William Strampel, the former dean who supervised him. A report on the investigation was critical of Youatt’s response to complaints against Strampel.

Other top administrators

Appointments

Craig W. Cornell, senior vice provost for strategic enrollment management at Ohio University, will become vice president for enrollment management at Radford University.

Dave Rozeboom, vice president for student life at Hardin-Simmons University, has been named vice president for student development at Mars Hill University.

Basil Stewart, chief financial officer and senior vice president for finance and administration at Merrimack College, has been named vice president for finance and administration at Lasell University.

Deans

Appointments

Lisa Armistead, associate provost for graduate programs at Georgia State University, has been named the inaugural dean of the university’s Graduate School.

Robert Hurt, former U.S. representative for Virginia’s 5th district, has been named dean of the Helms School of Government at Liberty University.

Joseph Salem, university librarian and director of libraries at Michigan State University, has been named dean of university libraries.

Resignations

Jamie R. Riley, assistant vice president and dean of students at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, has resigned after Breitbart News published images of past tweets from Riley’s account that criticized the American flag and suggested a correlation between the police and the country’s history of racism.

Department chairs

Appointments

J. Nwando Olayiwola, an associate physician and clinical instructor of family community medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, has been named chair of the department of family medicine in the Ohio State University College of Medicine.

Rodney J. Taylor, a professor and interim chair of the department of otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery in the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, has been named chair of the department.

Other administrators

Appointments

Linda Bathgate, deputy director and editor-in-chief at the University Press of Florida, has been named editor-in-chief at Washington State University Press.

Joel Brouwer, a professor of English at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, has been named associate provost for faculty affairs.

Joseph (JT) Duck, director of admissions at Swarthmore College, has been named dean of admissions for the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering at Tufts University.

Cassandra B. Jeter-Bailey, assistant dean of admission for JD and graduate law programs in the Law School at Capital University, has been named assistant dean of admission and financial aid in the College of Law at the University of Cincinnati.

N. Jeremy Kasdin, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, has been named assistant dean of the engineering program at the University of San Francisco.

Travis Lovett, director of the Center for Public Interest Careers in the Phillips Brooks House Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship at Harvard University, has been named assistant dean of civic engagement.

Lymari Morales, chief editorial adviser at Atlantic 57, the strategic communications consultancy of The Atlantic, has been named associate dean of communications and marketing at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Giang T. Nguyen, executive director of the Student Health Service and a clinical associate professor of family medicine and community health at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will become director of Harvard University Health Services in November.

Julie Reuben, a professor of the history of American education in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University, has been named faculty director of the Phillips Brooks House Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship.

Nina Sadowsky, a lecturer in the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California and former president of production for Signpost Films Productions, has been named director of New York University’s study-away program in Los Angeles.

Lisa Tronzano, assistant director of human resources at New York Medical College, has been named director of human resources.

Resignations

Joichi Ito, director of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has stepped down after the revelation of Ito’s attempts to conceal his financial links to Jeffrey Epstein, who was facing sex trafficking charges before his death last month.

Deaths

Carole Bellini-Sharp, a professor emerita of theatre at Hamilton College, died on August 28. Bellini-Sharp began as an assistant professor of drama at Kirkland College in 1973 and joined the faculty at Hamilton when the two colleges merged in 1978. She taught for 43 years.

Gregory Eells, executive director of counseling and psychological services at the University of Pennsylvania, died on September 9. He was 52. Eells started at the university in January; he previously served as director of counseling and psychological services at Cornell University.

Glen Thomas, a professor-at-large in the School of Education at Biola University, died of cancer on July 26. He was 72. Thomas led Biola’s Emerging Leaders Institute in Sacramento. He began his career in education in the 1970s and later served as California’s Secretary of Education under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger from 2009 to 2010.

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