Transitions: Nazareth College Names Next Chief; New Provost at Loyola U. New Orleans

Chief executives

Appointments

Thomas Botzman, president of Misericordia University, has been named president of University of Mount Union on July 1. He will succeed W. Richard Merriman Jr., who plans to step down.

Michael Fischer, associate vice president at Great Bay Community College, will become president of York County Community College, in Maine, in March.

Brien Lewis, president of Catawba College, will become president of Transylvania University on July 1. He will replace John Norton Williams Jr., who has served as interim president since Seamus Carey left to become president of Iona College.

Elizabeth L. Paul, president of Capital University, in Ohio, will become president of Nazareth College, in New York, on July 1. She will succeed Daan Braveman, who plans to step down.

Retirements

Carol A. Taylor, president of Evangel University since 2013, plans to retire in August.

Chief academic officers

Appointments

Carolyn Ringer Lepre, dean of the School of Communication and the Arts at Marist College, will become provost and vice president for academic affairs at Radford University on July 1.

Elizabeth Loboa, vice chancellor for strategic partnerships and dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Missouri, will become provost and vice president for academic affairs at Southern Methodist University on July 6.

David Schecter, vice provost at California State University at Bakersfield, will become provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of South Carolina Upstate on April 1.

Tanuja Singh, dean of the Greehey School of Business at St. Mary’s University, in Texas, will become provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Loyola University New Orleans in July.

Karen Soul, interim provost and dean of Centenary College of Louisiana since July 2019, has been named to the post permanently.

Departures

Rafael Bras, provost at the Georgia Institute of Technology, plans to step down on September 1.

Martin A. Philbert, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, has been placed on administrative leave as campus officials begin an investigation of accusations of sexual misconduct against him.

Other top administrators

Appointments

Matthew Boyce, executive director of enrollment management at George Mason University, will become vice president for enrollment at the University of Puget Sound on June 8.

Joseph Garcia, executive vice president for administration at State University of New York’s Empire State College, has been named vice president for finance and operations and chief financial officer at William Jewell College.

Jim Handley, former practice lead of the talent-acquisition team at Verizon Wireless, has been named vice president for human resources at Rock Valley College.

Leah Rosen, associate vice president for marketing and creative services at George Washington University, has been named inaugural vice president for communications and marketing at Union College, in New York.

Linda Wu, director of administrative information systems at Howard Community College, has been named vice president for information technology.

Deans

Appointments

Dori Borjesson, chair of the department of pathology, microbiology, and immunology in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California at Davis, has been named dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University.

John Brocklebank, executive vice president and chief hosting officer for global hosting at SAS Institute Inc., a software developer, has been named dean of the College of Computing and Technology at Lipscomb University.

Dean Diehl, director of the music-business program at Trevecca Nazarene University, has been named academic dean of the School of Graduate and Continuing Studies.

Kelly Fiala, transitional dean of the College of Health and Human Services at Salisbury University since July 2018, has been named founding dean of the college.

Scott Fritzen, director of international executive education and director of the global master-of-public-administration program in the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington, will become dean of the David L. Boren College of International Studies and associate provost for global engagement at the University of Oklahoma on July 1.

SherRhonda Gibbs, interim director of the School of Management at the University of Southern Mississippi, has been named dean of the Kenneth W. Monfort College of Business at the University of Northern Colorado.

Linnea Glenmaye, associate vice president for academic affairs at Wichita State University, has been named acting dean of the College of Health Professions.

Kasia Gonnerman, director of the Central Library and interlibrary loan at Vanderbilt University, will become dean of libraries at the University of Alabama at Birmingham on April 1.

Alvin Harmon, interim dean of science, mathematics, and health professions at Atlanta Metropolitan State College, has been named dean of the health-sciences division at Central Georgia Technical College.

Kathryn J. Jervis, director of the Graduate Healthcare Management Program and a professor of accounting at the University of Rhode Island, will become dean of the School of Business at the College of New Jersey on July 1.

Kate O’Hara, vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Bay State College, has been named dean of the Attleboro Campus of Bristol Community College.

Dorsey Spencer Jr., director of administration in the office of the vice president for student affairs at Florida State University, will become dean of students at Colgate University on June 1.

Shari Veil, associate dean of undergraduate affairs and chair of the department of communication in the College of Communication and Information at the University of Kentucky, will become dean of the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln on July 1.

Kimberly Vogt, an assistant professor and chair of the department of biology at Marian University, has been named dean of natural and agricultural sciences at Lincoln Land Community College.

Boyce C. Williams, interim dean of the College of Education at Frostburg State University since 2017, has been named to the post permanently.

Srilata Zaheer, dean of the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, has been named chair of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Department chairs

Appointments

Jeff Harrison, vice chair of the department of family medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, has been named chair of the department.

Ching-Hsun Huang, interim executive director of the School of Forestry at Northern Arizona University, has been named head of the department of sustainable biomaterials in the College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Tech.

Mikhail V. Pletnikov, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, neuroscience, and molecular and comparative pathology at the Johns Hopkins University, will become a professor and chair of the department of physiology and biophysics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo on July 1.

Other administrators

Appointments

Ariana Arnold, senior associate general counsel for litigation and employment at Howard University, has been named director of the new Office of Equity and Inclusion at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

François Baneyx, interim vice provost for innovation at the University of Washington since July 2019, has been named to the post permanently.

Jason Hicks, interim associate dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Louisiana State University, has been named to the post permanently.

Twanna Hodge, an academic/research librarian at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University, has been named the first diversity, equity, and inclusion librarian at George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida.

Camille Lizarríbar, dean of student affairs and senior associate dean in Yale College at Yale University, has been named dean of student affairs and chief student-affairs officer for the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering at Tufts University.

William Noel, associate vice provost for external partnerships, director of the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books, and Manuscripts, and director of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, has been named associate university librarian for special collections at the Princeton University Library.

Odalys M. Diaz Piñeiro, executive director of university advancement at the City University of New York, will become chief of staff at Ithaca College on April 13.

Jessica Poole, senior associate athletic director of external relations at Florida Atlantic University, has been named senior associate athletic director of external operations and revenue generation at Chicago State University.

Jennifer Roberts, a professor and chair of the department of geology at the University of Kansas, has been named vice provost for graduate studies.

Andrea Stapleton, a professor of theology at Loyola University Chicago, has been named vice president for mission integration at the College of Saint Mary.

Nicole R. Stokes, associate vice president for institutional effectiveness and diversity at Holy Family University, will become associate provost for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Saint Joseph’s University, in Pennsylvania, on February 10.

Aaron Yancoskie, an associate professor of dental medicine and director of oral and maxillofacial pathology at Touro College of Dental Medicine, has been named assistant dean of academic affairs.

Rustin Zarkar, a course instructor at New York University, has been named Middle East and Islamic studies librarian in the University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Resignations

Peter Cohen, director of development for computer science and data initiatives at Brown University, has resigned after being put on leave after revelations of his involvement in accepting donations from Jeffrey Epstein as director of development for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab.

Faculty

Appointments

Hassana Alidou, former ambassador of the Republic of Niger to the United States and Canada, has been named a faculty member in the doctoral interdisciplinary-studies program at Union Institute & University, in Ohio.

Retirements

John Norton Moore, a professor of law and director of the Center for National Security Law and the Center for Oceans Law and Policy in the School of Law at the University of Virginia, plans to retire. He has been a member of the law-school faculty for 53 years.

Organizations

Appointments

Thomas L. Harnisch, director of state relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, has been named vice president for government relations at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.

Retirements

Judith Eaton, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation since 1997, plans to retire this year.

Deaths

Clayton M. Christensen, a professor of business administration at Harvard University, died of complications from cancer on January 23. He was 67. Christensen, best known for his theories on “disruptive innovation” outlined in The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, joined the faculty of the Harvard Business School in 1992.

Allen R. Myers, former dean of the School of Medicine at Temple University, died on January 15. He was 85. Myers also taught at the University of Pennsylvania as an associate professor of medicine and a staff physician at its hospital.

Sister Emmanuel Renner, president emerita of College of Saint Benedict, died on January 22. She was 93. Renner led the college from 1979 to 1986. Before and after her time as president, she taught in the history department. She retired as a professor emerita in 1998.

Michael I. Sovern, president emeritus of Columbia University, died on January 20. He was 88. Sovern graduated from Columbia Law School and became a full professor there in 1960. He served as dean from 1970 to 1979, during which time he hired Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the law school’s first female tenured professor. He became the university’s provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, and then president for 13 years.

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