Transitions: New President Selected at Concordia U., in Nebraska; Interim Provost Named at U. of North Carolina at Greensboro

CHIEF EXECUTIVES
Appointments
Loren James Blanchard, executive vice chancellor for academic and student affairs at California State University, has been named the sole finalist for president of the University of Houston-Downtown.

Bernard D. Bull, president of Goddard College, has been named president of Concordia University, in Nebraska. He will replace the Rev. Russ Sommerfeld, who has served as interim president since the Rev. Brian Friedrich stepped down at the end of 2019.

DeAnna R. Burt-Nanna, vice president for student and academic affairs at South Central College, in Minnesota, will become president of Monroe Community College, in New York, on May 21. She will replace Katherine P. Douglas, who became interim president in February.

Michael Licari, provost at Indiana State University, has been named president of Austin Peay State University. He succeeds Alisa White, who left to become president of Sam Houston State University.

The Rev. Thomas P. Looney, associate vice president for academic success, director of campus ministry, and a college chaplain at King’s College, in Pennsylvania, will become president in July. He will succeed the Rev. John Ryan, who plans to retire.

David Russell, acting president of Columbia College, in Missouri, has been named interim president. Russell became acting president after Scott Dalrymple resigned in November.

Retirements
Cheryl Evans, president of Northern Oklahoma College since 2011, plans to retire on June 30.

Joel L. Kinnamon, superintendent/president of College of the Desert since 2012, plans to retire on March 31.

CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICERS
Appointments
Terri Shelton, vice chancellor for research and engagement at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, has been named interim provost after Jim Coleman was removed “due to behavior that did not meet expectations for senior leaders at UNCG.”

Michael Soto, associate vice president for academic affairs, student academic issues, and retention at Trinity University, in Texas, has been named provost at Point Park University.

Retirements
David P. Cordle, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Emporia State University, plans to retire at the end of the 2020-21 academic year.

OTHER TOP ADMINISTRATORS
Appointments
C. Edward Ashley, associate vice president for the Temecula campus of California State University at San Marcos, has been named as vice president for finance and administration at Elmira College.

Guillermo de Veyga, chief of staff to the president at New Jersey City University, has been named vice president for strategic initiatives and university relations at William Paterson University.

Ken Fincher, vice president for institutional advancement and executive director of the Foundation at Middle Georgia State University, has been named vice president for institutional advancement and executive director of the Oregon Tech Foundation at Oregon Institute of Technology.

Brian Harper, an associate professor and chief medical officer at the New York Institute of Technology, has been named vice president for equity and inclusion in addition to his other roles.

Kevin Hearn, vice president for enrollment management and strategic communications at Chestnut Hill College, in Philadelphia, will become vice president for enrollment management at Robert Morris University, in Pennsylvania, on February 8.

Christopher Sheffield, associate vice president for student affairs and institutional effectiveness at Niagara University, has been named vice president for student affairs.

Michelle L. Webb, director of academic assessment at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions, has been named vice president for institutional effectiveness.

Lonnie Williams, interim vice chancellor for diversity and community engagement at Arkansas State University since June, has been named to the role permanently.

DEANS
Appointments
Michele Bachmann, former representative for Minnesota’s 6th congressional district, has been named dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University.

Raheem Beyah, vice president for interdisciplinary research and executive director of the online master of science in cybersecurity program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, will become dean of the College of Engineering on January 15.

Brian Cronk, faculty assistant to the provost and chair of the psychology department at Missouri Western State University, has been named dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Buffalo State College.

Sam Fulwood III, a senior fellow and vice president for race and equity at the Center for American Progress, will become dean of the School of Communication at American University in May.

Nick Gozik, director of the Office of International Programs and the McGillycuddy-Logue Center for Undergraduate Global Studies at Boston College, has been named dean of global education at Elon University.

Shannon Mathews, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and a professor of social and behavioral sciences at Savannah State University, has been named dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of La Verne.

Joan Phillips, dean of the Andreas School of Business at Barry University, has been named dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Missouri at St. Louis.

Nicole Wadsworth, site dean of the Long Island campus of the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, has been named dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Amy Waer, interim dean of the College of Medicine at Texas A&M University, has been named to the post permanently.

Resignations
Wendy Nehring, dean of the East Tennessee State University College of Nursing, plans to step down and rejoin the faculty. Kathryn Wilhoit, former vice president and chief nursing executive for Mountain States Health Alliance, has been named interim dean.

OTHER ADMINISTRATORS
Appointments
Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will become director of the MIT Media Lab on July 1.

Joseph Price, special projects director in the dean’s office of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, has been named assistant dean of administration in the college.

Otoniel (Tony) Reyes, chief of the New Haven Police Department, has been named chief of the department of public safety at Quinnipiac University.

ORGANIZATIONS
Appointments
Shalin Jyotishi, assistant director for economic development and community engagement and program director of the Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities program at the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, has been named senior policy analyst in the Center on Education and Labor at the think-tank New America in Washington, D.C.

Kathleen Scott, director of organizational excellence and administrative operations at California State University at Fresno, has been named vice president for leadership development and partnerships at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

DEATHS
William B. Boyd, former president of Central Michigan University and the University of Oregon, died on December 16. He was 97. Boyd led CMU from 1968 to 1975. He also served as dean of faculty and professor of history at Alma College and vice chancellor of student affairs at University of California at Berkeley.

Tom Burek, swim coach at Monmouth College, died of complications of Covid-19 on December 12. He was 62.

Arthur Bushel, a retired dentist who taught at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, died on November 21. He was 99.

Edmund M. Clarke, a professor emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University, died of Covid-19 on December 22. Clarke was a co-recipient of the 2007 Turing Award, along with E. Allen Emerson and Joseph Sifakis, for the development of model checking.

Ted DeLaney, a professor of history at Washington and Lee University, died on December 18. He was 77. DeLaney began his career at the university as a custodian and later became the first Black department head. He was a leading voice in the university’s reckoning with the legacy of Robert E. Lee on campus.

Scott Donaldson, a professor emeritus of American literature at the College of William & Mary, died on December 1. He was 92. Donaldson wrote biographies of many figures in American literature, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.

H. Jack Geiger, a professor emeritus of community medicine at the City University of New York Medical School at City College of New York, died on December 28. He was 95. Geiger was a founding member of two advocacy groups that won Nobel Prizes: Physicians for Social Responsibility, which shared the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to end the nuclear arms race, and Physicians for Human Rights, which shared the 1997 prize for working to ban land mines.

Nancy Harrington, president emerita of Salem State University, died on December 12. She was 81. Harrington was the first woman to serve as president, which she did from 1990 to 2007.

Barry Lopez, the 1986 National Book Award-winning author of Arctic Dreams, died on December 25. He was 75. In addition to his writing on the environment and landscapes, he taught at Columbia University, Eastern Washington University, the University of Iowa, Carleton College, in Minnesota, and Texas Tech University.

James Mikolajczak-LaRosa, a clinical assistant professor of nursing at Carroll University, died of Covid-19 on January 1. He was 44.

C. Robert Morris, an emeritus professor of the University of Minnesota Law School, died on October 16. He was 92.

Hans-Olaf Pfannkuch, a former professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Minnesota for 42 years, died on November 19. He was 87.

James C. Renick, former chancellor of North Carolina A&T State University from 1999 to 2006, died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on January 3. He was 72. Renick also served as chancellor of the University of Michigan at Dearborn and worked at the University of South Florida and George Mason University over the course of his career.

Barbara Rose, an art critic and author of the textbook American Art Since 1900, died on December 25. She was 84.

C. Wade Savage, a professor emeritus of philosophy of science and former director of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, died on November 16. He was 88.

Ezra F. Vogel, a professor, co-founder, and former director of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, and former director of the Asia Center at Harvard University, died on December 20. He was 90. Vogel wrote several books on Japan and China, including a biography of Deng Xiaoping, which won the 2012 Lionel Gelber Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for biography.

Donald W. Whisenhunt, a former professor of history at Western Washington University, died from complications of Covid-19, on December 29. He was 82. Whisenhunt also served as a dean and vice president over the course of his career.

Theodore Ziolkowski, a professor emeritus of German and comparative literature at Princeton University, died on December 5. He was 88. Ziolkowski also served as president of the Modern Language Association in 1985.