Transitions: First Female President to Lead Northern Illinois U., Northwestern U. Names New Business Chief

Chief executives

Appointments

John Berry, vice president for student affairs and college advancement at BridgeValley Community and Technical College, will become president of Central Ohio Technical College on January 1. He will succeed Bonnie L. Coe, who plans to retire.

Randy Boyd, founder and executive chairman of Radio Systems Corporation, has been named the sole candidate for interim president of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. The university’s Board of Trustees will meet on September 25 to confirm his appointment.

Fran Brown, academic program director at the Michigan School of Professional Psychology, has been named president. She will succeed Diane Blau, who has stepped down.

Lisa C. Freeman, acting president of Northern Illinois University since Doug Baker’s resignation in July 2017, has been named to the position permanently. She will be the university’s first female president.

Darrin L. Hartness, superintendent of Davie County Schools, in North Carolina, has been named president of Davidson County Community College. He will replace Mary E. Rittling, who plans to retire in December.

Resignations

John Smarrelli, president of Christian Brothers University, plans to step down and return to the faculty at the end of this academic year.

Retirements

David Beyer, president of Everett Community College since 2006, plans to retire in June of 2019.

Peter W. Teague, president of Lancaster Bible College, plans to retire on August 1, 2019.

Chief academic officers

Appointments

John R. Ballard, vice president for veterans and military partnerships and director of the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, has been named academic dean and provost at the United States Merchant Marine Academy.

Christopher J. Cyphers, vice president for institutional effectiveness, assessment, and strategic planning at the School of Visual Arts, has been named provost.

Other top administrators

Appointments

Michael Blanton, vice president for athletic compliance at the University of Southern California, has been named the university’s first vice president for professionalism and ethics.

Deborah Watkins Bruner, professor and chair of nursing and assistant dean for faculty mentoring in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, will become senior vice president for research on October 1.

Michelle Davis, chief marketing officer at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, has been named the first chief marketing officer at Wentworth Institute of Technology.

Marcus Garstecki, vice president for student affairs at Dakota State University, will become vice president for enrollment and marketing at Presentation College on November 5.

Robin Hansen, former director of IT financial management at Northwestern Mutual, has been named vice president for finance and administration at Alverno College.

Joseph Harbouk, vice president for finance and administration at Front Range Community College, became vice president for finance and administration at Harford Community College on September 10.

Abraham Jeger, assistant dean for academic outreach and site development at the New York Institute of Technology, has been named chief operating officer and associate dean of student affairs at Touro College of Pharmacy.

Craig Johnson, interim senior vice president for business and finance at Northwestern University, has been named vice president for business and finance.

Tamara Michel Josserand, assistant dean of advancement in the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, will become vice president for advancement on October 10.

Jomysha Delgado Stephen, general counsel and chief of staff to the president at Barnard College, has been named vice president for legal affairs, in addition to her original position.

Kelli C. Styron, dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts at Tarleton State University, will become interim vice president for student affairs on January 1.

Retirements

Robert K. Durkee, vice president and secretary at Princeton University, plans to retire in June. Hilary A. Parker, assistant vice president and chief of staff in the Office of the President, will succeed him on July 1.

Marilyn Sanders Mobley, vice president for inclusion, diversity and equal opportunity at Case Western Reserve University, plans to step down at the end of the year.

Deans

Appointments

Barry Eckert, dean of the School of Health Professions at Long Island University at Brooklyn, became interim dean of the School of Professional Studies at Western Connecticut State University on September 4.

Jennifer A. Hanselman, chair of the department of biology at Westfield State University, has been named interim dean of the College of Mathematics and Sciences.

Mark Horstemeyer, professor and chair of computational solid mechanics at Mississippi State University, has been named dean of the School of Engineering at Liberty University.

Juline E. Mills, professor and chair of hospitality and tourism management at the University of New Haven, has been named dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Services at Westfield State University.

Tracy Sulkin, a professor of political science and interim executive associate dean of the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since May 2017, has been named dean of the College of Media.

Emily B. Todd, chair of the department of English at Westfield State University, has been named interim dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

Resignations

Carla Hesse, executive dean of the College of Letters and Science and dean of the Division of Social Sciences at the University of California at Berkeley, plans to step down from both positions and return to the faculty in 2019.

AnnaLee (Anno) Saxenian, dean of the School of Information at the University of California at Berkeley, plans to step down and return to the faculty in 2019.

Department chairs

Appointments

Kimberly Balsam, a professor and the director of the Center for LGBTQ Evidence-Based Applied Research and the LGBTQ Area of Emphasis in the Ph.D. program at Palo Alto University, has been named chair of the department of psychology.

Carol Rusche Bentel, a partner at Bentel & Bentel Architects/Planners, has been named chair of the B.F.A. interior design department at the School of Visual Arts.

Jimmy Calhoun, interim chair of the B.F.A. computer art, computer animation, and visual effects department at the School of Visual Arts, has been named to the position permanently.

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, a professor of history and African and African-American studies at Harvard University, has been named chair of the department of history. She is the first African-American chair of this department.

Joseph Maida, a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts, has been named chair of the B.F.A. photography and video department.

Catherine Rosamond, a program advisor in the art education program at City University of New York Queens College, has been named chair of the master of arts in teaching art education department at the School of Visual Arts.

William Snow, an associate professor and director of the master’s in counseling program at Palo Alto University, has been named chair the department of counseling.

Other administrators

Appointments

Carthene Bazemore-Walker, chief research officer at Winston-Salem State University, became assistant dean for diversity, inclusivity, and thriving at the University of Richmond’s School of Arts and Sciences on September 17.

Mark Hudgik, director of admission at Greenfield Community College, has been named director of admissions at Holyoke Community College.

Sheetal Kale, former associate general counsel with TCS Education System, has been named director of equity, diversity and chief Title IX coordinator at Manhattan College.

Linda P. Lebile, department chair of humanities and social sciences at the Community College of Qatar, became associate dean of academic affairs at the Palm Beach Gardens campus at Palm Beach State College on August 20.

Lisa M. Lee, chief of bioethics and human subjects research at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, has been named associate vice president for scholarly integrity and research compliance at Virginia Tech.

Betsy Fischer Martin, former executive producer of Meet the Press and managing editor for NBC News Political Programming, has been named executive director of the Women & Politics Institute at American University.

Ana Martin-Mejia, chair of languages and humanities at Community College of Aurora, has been named associate dean of the School of Liberal Arts.

Wesley Renfro, chair and associate professor of political science and legal studies and director of the general-education program at St. John Fisher College, has been named associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Quinnipiac University.

Resignations

Jason Gesser, assistant athletic director at Washington State University, has resigned following allegations of sexual misconduct against him by a former volleyball player at the university.

Faculty

Appointments

Kristen Amick, an associate professor of biology at Allegheny College, has been named an associate professor of biology at Westminster College, in Pennsylvania.

Jacob Ausderan, an assistant professor of political science at Arkansas State University, has been named an assistant professor of political science at Barry University.

Trisha Cowen, a visiting professor of creative writing at the University of Central Arkansas, has been named an assistant professor of English at Westminster College, in Pennsylvania.

Eric Gaber, an adjunct business professor at LaRoche College and president of the executive recruiting and management consulting firm in Pittsburgh, E&C Services Inc., has been named a visiting entrepreneur-in-residenceat Westminster College, in Pennsylvania.

Taylor Ripley, an associate professor of surgery at the Thoracic and Oncologic Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute, has been named an associate professor of surgery in the Division of General Thoracic Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine.

Shannon Whitcomb, an adjunct instructor in the department of biology and geosciences at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, has been named a lecturer of anatomy and physiology at Westminster College, in Pennsylvania.

Resignations

Nezar AlSayyad, a professor of architecture at the University of California at Berkeley, has resigned. AlSayyad was suspended in August following a campus investigation into sexual-harassment allegations made by a former student. The investigation resulted in his being barred from campus until 2021, and whether he will receive emeritus status is being considered by university leadership.

Awards

Frederick M. Lawrence, a lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center and secretary and chief executive of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, will receive the Ernest L. Boyer Award from the New American Colleges and Universities.

dt ogilvie, a professor of urban entrepreneurship at Rochester Institute of Technology’s Saunders College of Business, received the Trailblazer Award from The PhD Project Management Doctoral Student Association.

Deaths

John M. Darley, a professor emeritus of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, died on August 31 of complications from Lewy body dementia. He was 80. Darley is known for his research on bystander intervention while an assistant professor at New York University, before working at Princeton for 44 years until his retirement in 2012.

Stanwood Curtis Fish Sr., dean of admissions and financial aid at the University of New Hampshire from 1991 to 1994, died on September 8 due to complications of Parkinson’s Disease. He was 80. Fish first came to the University in 1968 as an assistant director of admissions.

L. Lee Knefelkamp, a professor emerita of psychology and education in the Teachers College at Columbia University and senior scholar at the Association of American Colleges and Universities, died on September 7. Over the course of her academic career, Knefelkamp was a faculty member and program chair at the University of Maryland in College Park, dean of the school of education at American University, and academic dean at Macalester College.

Submit items for Gazette to people@chronicle.com.