Transitions: First Laywoman to Lead Loyola U. New Orleans, President of Roger Williams U. Dies at 75

Chief executives

Appointments

Chris Gilmer, executive director of Alcorn State University, has been named president of West Virginia University at Parkersburg. He replaces Jane Milley, who has served as interim president since Fletcher Lamkin left to become president of Westminster College, in Missouri.

Gerald Lang, former provost at West Virginia University Institute of Technology, has been named interim president. He will replace Carolyn Long, who left to serve on the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.

Nick Mance, former chairman of the board for Southwestern Illinois College, has been named president. He succeeds Georgia Costello, who retired on June 30.

John M. Mason Jr., vice president for research and economic development at Auburn University, will become chancellor of Pennsylvania State University-Harrisburg on August 1. He will succeed Mukund S. Kulkarni, who plans to retire.

Tania Tetlow, senior vice president, chief of staff, and a professor of law at Tulane University, will become the first female and lay president of Loyola University New Orleans in September. She will succeed the Rev. Kevin Wildes, who is retiring after having led the institution since 2004.

Erika Yigzaw, chief strategy officer at the American College of Healthcare Sciences, will become president on July 15. She will replace Dorene Petersen, who has served as president since she founded the college in 1978.

Retirements

Robert Altenkirch, president of the University of Alabama at Huntsville since 2011, plans to retire.

Katherine Douglas, president of Corning Community College since 2011, plans to retire on June 30, 2019.

Vinton Thompson, president of Metropolitan College of New York since 2008, retired at the end of June. Joanne Passaro became president on July 1.

Chief academic officers

Appointments

Latha Ramchand, dean of the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, will become provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Missouri at Columbia on August 15.

Caroline Zeind, interim provost at MCPHS University, has been named vice president for academic affairs/provost.

Other top administrators

Appointments

Chaouki T. Abdallah, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Mexico, has been named executive vice president for research at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Steven Berberich, associate provost for faculty and staff affairs at Wright State University, became senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Houston-Clear Lake on July 2.

Gina Bianchi, senior director of alumni and donor engagement at Millikin University, became vice president for alumni and development on July 1.

Rebecca Butler, senior vice president for enrollment management and student services at Columbus State Community College, became executive vice president on July 1.

Jane Dietze, managing director of the Investment Office at Brown University, has been named vice president and chief investment officer.

Matthew Goetting, associate head for external affairs at Lincoln Academy, in Maine, will become vice president for institutional advancement at the Maine College of Art on August 1.

Michael L. Good, dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Florida, will become senior vice president for health sciences, chief executive of University of Utah Health, and executive dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Utah in the fall.

Chris McCoy, associate vice chancellor for information technology services and chief information officer at the University of Arkansas, will become vice chancellor for finance and administration on August 2.

Maeesha Merchant, interim vice president for finance and operations at California Institute of the Arts, has been named to the position permanently.

Stefanie Niles, vice president for enrollment management at Dickinson College, will become vice president for enrollment and communications at Ohio Wesleyan University on August 15.

Norma Perez, interim vice chancellor for instructional services and chief academic officer at Houston Community College, has been named to the position permanently.

Raphaella Prange, dean of student development at Millikin University, became vice president for student affairs, in addition to her original position, on July 1.

James Sterngold, senior adviser to the chancellor for communications and interim director of communications and marketing at the City University of New York, became vice president for university relations at Pace University on June 9.

Nicholas Wittner, a professor of law in residence at the Michigan State University College of Law, has been named acting chief compliance officer, a new position created in the wake of the Larry Nassar sexual-abuse scandal.

Janet Wormack, senior vice president for administrative and fiscal services at Montgomery College, has been named vice chancellor for finance and administration and chief financial officer at Houston Community College.

Resignations

Audrey Anderson, vice chancellor, general counsel, and secretary at Vanderbilt University, plans to resign on July 31.

Retirements

Alice Clark, vice chancellor for university relations at the University of Mississippi, retired last month.

Deans

Appointments

Maria Cancian, a professor in the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs and a former associate dean for fiscal initiatives and social sciences at the College of Letters and Sciences of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, will become dean of the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University on February 1.

Richard Highfield, former dean and professor in the College of Business at the University of New Haven, will become interim dean of the College of Business at Central Washington University on August 20.

Ray Jayawardhana, dean of science and a professor of physics and astronomy at York University, in Ontario, will become dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University on September 1.

Charles R. Martinez Jr., a professor of educational methodology, policy, and leadership and director of the Center for Equity Promotion at the University of Oregon, will become dean of the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin on January 1.

Sastry G. Pantula, a professor and former dean in the College of Sciences at Oregon State University, will become dean of the College of Natural Sciences at California State University at San Bernardino on July 25.

Gabe Paquette, professor of history at Johns Hopkins University, will become dean of the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon on September 1.

Lester Sandres Rapalo, dean of the social sciences/business/history division Union County College, became dean of the Elizabeth Campus on July 1.

Department chairs

Appointments

Eric de Sturler, a professor of mathematics in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, will become department chair on August 10.

Kristin Rogers-Brown, assistant professor in charge of the Illustration Advanced Studio at Pacific Northwest College of Art, has been named department head for the undergraduate graphic-design program.

Other administrators

Appointments

Stephen Banister, library director at Minot State University, has been named director of library services at Tallahassee Community College.

Margot Early, associate director of development at the Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, will become director of annual giving and the President’s Innovation Fund at Morehouse School of Medicine.

Chanaka Edirisinghe, a senior professor in the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been named associate dean for academic affairs.

David L. Everett, equity, diversion, and inclusivity consultant for the Minnesota Department of Human Services, will become associate vice president for inclusive excellence at Hamline University on August 27.

Mai Li Muñoz, a chief development officer for the Carolina region at the University of Tennessee, has been named senior director of development for research at Morehouse School of Medicine.

Emily Potter-Ndiaye, director of education at the Brooklyn Historical Society, will become head of education and curator of academic programs at the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College on August 20.

Daniel Patrick Powell, chief development officer at the University of Tennessee, has been named assistant vice president for volunteer engagement and donor philanthropy at Morehouse School of Medicine.

Eddie Price, deputy superintendent of the Johnston County Public Schools, will become director of the North Carolina Principal Fellows Program at North Carolina State University on August 1.

John K. White Jr., senior corporate and foundation-relations officer at Morehouse College, has been named associate vice president and chief of staff in the office of institutional advancement at Morehouse School of Medicine.

Retirements

RoseAnn D’Urso, manager of promotional programming at Ocean County College, retired on June 29.

Faculty

Appointments

Raina Haque, an adjunct professor at the Wake Forest University School of Law and founding partner of Erdos Intellectual Property Law + Startup Legal, became a professor of practice in technology on July 1.

Organizations

Appointments

Elizabeth Albro, associate commissioner for teaching and learning with the National Center for Education Research, became the commissioner on July 9. The center is part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

Matthew D. Shank, president emeritus of Marymount University, will become interim president of the World Affairs Council-Washington, D.C. on July 16. The council provides programs and discussions on global education.

Lisa Tyson, director of the College of Adult and Graduate Studies at Evangel University, has been named president of the Christian Adult Higher Education Association.

Deaths

Donald J. Farish, president of Roger Williams University since 2011, died on July 5. He was 75. Farish had planned to retire in June 2019. During his tenure as president, he oversaw the Affordable Excellence program, which provided tuition guarantees to undergraduates. He began his academic career in 1968 as a faculty member at the University of Missouri at Columbia, and later served as provost of Sonoma State University and president of Rowan University.

Morton (Mickey) Keller, professor emeritus of history at Brandeis University, died at 89. Keller published several books on American public life across a wide variety of subjects, including The Art and Politics of Thomas Nast (Oxford University Press, 1968) and America’s Three Regimes: A New Political History (Oxford University Press, 2007). He recieved the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1959 while in his first academic position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Rex R. Perschbacher, dean and professor emeritus in the School of Law at the University of California at Davis, died on June 30. He was 71.

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