Transitions: Louisiana State U. Names New President; U. of South Carolina President Resigns

Katherine Seghers

CHIEF EXECUTIVES
Appointments
Kimberly Ballard-Washington, interim president of Savannah State University, has been named to the post permanently.

Mordecai Brownlee, vice president for student success at St. Philip’s College, in Texas, will become president of the Community College of Aurora, in Colorado, on July 15. He will succeed Betsy Oudenhoven, who plans to retire.

Alison Byerly, president of Lafayette College, in Pennsylvania, will become president of Carleton College, in Minnesota, effective August 1.

Terrence Cheng, director of the Stamford campus of the University of Connecticut, will become president of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system on July 2. He will replace Jane Gates, who became interim president after Mark Ojakian retired.

Mary K. Grant, senior administrative fellow for civics and social justice and co-chair of the president’s Special Task Force on Racial Justice at Bridgewater State University, has been named president of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Richard Muma, interim president of Wichita State University, in Kansas, since September 2020, has been named to the post permanently. He succeeds Jay Golden.

Dana Nichols, provost at Georgia Highlands College, will become interim president on July 7. She will replace Don Green, who has been named president of Point Park University, in Pittsburgh.

Sean Parnell, a former governor of Alaska, has been named chancellor of the University of Alaska at Anchorage, effective June 12. He will replace Bruce Schultz, who became interim chancellor after Cathy Sandeen left to be president of California State University-East Bay.

Vince Rodriguez, vice president for instruction at Coastline College, in California, will become president on July 1. He will succeed Lorretta Adrian, who plans to retire.

William F. Tate IV, provost at the University of South Carolina, has been named president of Louisiana State University. He will replace Thomas C. Galligan Jr., who has been interim president since F. King Alexander resigned.

Glena G. Temple, president of Viterbo University, will become president of Dominican University, on August 2. She will succeed Donna Carroll, who retired after serving as president for 27 years.

Amanda M. Thomas, provost at Loyola University Maryland, has been named interim president. She will replace the Rev. Brian F. Linnane, who will retire on June 30.

William M. Tsutsui, a former president of Hendrix College, in Arkansas, and a visiting professor at Harvard University, will become president and chief executive of Ottawa University, based in Kansas, on July 1. He will succeed Chancellor Kevin C. Eichner, who will serve as chancellor emeritus through his contract, which ends on June 30, 2022.

Resignations
Lt. Gen. Robert L. Caslen Jr., president of the University of South Carolina since 2019, resigned after delivering a commencement speech that resulted in accusations of plagiarism.

Margee M. Ensign, president of Dickinson College, in Pennsylvania, will resign effective June 30. The college’s board has appointed its chair, John E. Jones III, as interim president for a two-year term.

Thomas Katsouleas, president of the University of Connecticut since August 2019, plans to step down on June 30.

Mark R. Kennedy, president of the University of Colorado system since July 2019, announced that he would resign following the Board of Regents’ shift to Democratic control.

M. Duane Nellis, president of Ohio University since 2017, plans to resign in June.

The Rev. Kevin O’Brien, president of Santa Clara University, has resigned after being placed on leave in March for engaging in inappropriate behavior.

Retirements
David R. Anderson, president of St. Olaf College since 2006, plans to retire at the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

Cecelia Fitzgibbon, president of Moore College of Art & Design, in Philadelphia, will retire at the end of the 2021-22 academic year.

Greg Salsbury, president of Western Colorado University since 2014, announced his retirement.

J. Emilio Flores

CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICERS
Appointments
Linda Essig, dean of the College of Arts and Letters at California State University at Los Angeles, will become provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the City University of New York’s Bernard M. Baruch College on July 1.

Heather Hulburt Norris, interim provost and executive vice chancellor at Appalachian State University since February 2021, has been named to the post permanently.

C. Cybele Raver, deputy provost at New York University, will become provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Vanderbilt University on July 1.

Jennifer King Rice, dean of the College of Education at the University of Maryland at College Park, will become senior vice president and provost on August 11.

Sebastián Royo, vice president for international affairs and a professor of political science at Suffolk University, will become provost and vice president for academic affairs at Clark University on July 1. Both universities are in Massachusetts.

Renée T. White, provost and a professor of sociology at Wheaton College, in Massachusetts, will become provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the New School on August 1.

Robert A. Blouin, executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, plans to step down by the end of the calendar year and return to his position as a professor in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

OTHER TOP ADMINISTRATORS
Appointments
Maria Q. Blandizzi, dean of students at the University of California at Los Angeles, has been named vice president for student life at the University of the Pacific, in California.

Caleb Cage, Covid-19 response director for the state of Nevada and former assistant vice chancellor for work-force development and community colleges at the Nevada System of Higher Education, will become vice chancellor for work-force development and chief innovation officer at the NSHE on June 10.

Heidi Conway, vice president for human resources at the Johns Hopkins University, will leave to become senior vice president for human resources and chief people officer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in Boston.

Shontay Delalue, vice president for institutional equity and diversity at Brown University, has been named the first senior vice president and senior diversity officer at Dartmouth College.

Karen Diver, business development director of the Native American Advancement Initiative at the University of Arizona, will become the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities’ first senior adviser to the president for Native American affairs on May 28.

Allen W. Groves, dean of students at the University of Virginia, will become senior vice president for the student experience at Syracuse University.

Stacy Goodwin Lightfoot, executive vice president of the Public Education Foundation, has been named the first vice chancellor for diversity and engagement at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Jane Livingston, chief information officer and associate vice president at Florida State University, has been named the University of Notre Dame’s vice president for information technology and chief investment officer.

Alfredo Medina, executive director of the office for public engagement and associate director of the office for diversity and inclusion at the University of Albany, will become vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion and the college diversity officer at Bennington College on June 14.

Darnell T. Parker, senior associate vice president for equity at Case Western Reserve University, will become vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Wheaton College, in Massachusetts, on July 1.

Joseph Webb, director of student affairs at Pennsylvania State University-Berks, will become vice president for student affairs at St. Norbert College, in Wisconsin, on July 7.

Nakeshia N. Williams, an associate professor in the educator-preparation department of the College of Education at North Carolina A&T State University, has been named vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Hollins University, in Virginia.

DEANS
Appointments
José Luis Alvarado, most recently provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University at Los Angeles, will become dean of the Fordham University Graduate School of Education, in New York, on July 1.

Örn Bodvarsson, dean of the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business and a professor of economics at Westminster College, has been named dean of the Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University.

Eve De Rosa, an associate professor of human development at Cornell University, has been named dean of the faculty.

Martha Garcia-Murillo, a senior associate dean at Syracuse University, in New York, will become dean of the College of Information Science and Technology at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, pending board approval, on July 1.

Lolita Buckner Inniss, senior associate dean of academic affairs in the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University, in Texas, will become dean of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s School of Law on July 1.

David A. Kinner, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Western Carolina University, has been named to the post permanently.

Holly J. Raider, managing director of executive education in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, has been named dean of the School of Business at Quinnipiac University.

LaVonda N. Reed, associate provost for faculty affairs at Syracuse University, has been named dean of the College of Law at Georgia State University.

Jennifer Yruegas, associate dean of the College of Business at Pacific University, in Oregon, will become dean of the college on July 1.

OTHER ADMINISTRATORS
Appointments
Connie Hargrave, a professor of educational technology and critical multicultural education at Iowa State University, has been named associate dean for equity and engagement in the College of Engineering.

Brenda Tindal, founding director of education and engagement at the International African American Museum, will become executive director of the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture on May 17.

Resignations
Mike Polisky, vice president for athletics and recreation at Northwestern University, has stepped down.

ORGANIZATIONS
Appointments
Gail F. Baker, vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of San Diego, has been named president of the Association of Chief Academic Officers.

James Davis, a professor of English and union chapter chair of the Professional Staff Congress at the City University of New York’s Brooklyn College, has been elected president of the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY.

Anna Harvey, a professor of politics at New York University, will become president and chief executive of the Social Science Research Council on July 1.

DEATHS
Thomas Brock, a former professor of medical microbiology at Indiana University at Bloomington, died on April 4. He was 94. Brock’s discovery of the bacteria Thermus aquaticus in 1966 earned him a share of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Craig James Caskie, senior director of alumni advancement at the University of Memphis, died on April 11. He was 49.

Denis Donoghue, an Irish literary critic and professor at New York University, died on April 6. He was 92.

Rajendra Kapila, a professor of medicine at New Jersey Medical School at Rutgers University, died of Covid-19. He was 81.