Transitions: New Chancellor at CUNY, Monmouth College Names Provost

Chief executives

Appointments

Micheal Crafton, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of West Georgia, will become interim president of the university on April 1. He will replace Kyle Marrero, who left to become president of Georgia Southern University.

Marcheta P. Evans, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Our Lady of the Lake University, will become president of Bloomfield College on June 1. She will succeed Richard A. Levao, who plans to retire, and will be both the first woman and first African-American to lead the college.

James A. Gash, associate dean for strategic planning and external relations and a professor in the School of Law at Pepperdine University, will become president on August 1. He will succeed Andrew K. Benton, who plans to step down after 19 years at the helm.

Anne M. Houtman, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, will become president of Earlham College and Earlham School of Religion on July 1. She will replace Avis Stewart, who has served as interim president since Alan Price stepped down in July, and will be the first woman to lead the college.

Andrew Kuchins, a senior fellow and research professor at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, will become president of the American University of Central Asia, in Kyrgyzstan, in May.

Dena McCaffrey, dean of career and technical education at Jefferson College, has been named president. She will succeed Raymond Cummiskey, who plans to retire on June 30, 2020. She will be the first woman in the role.

Christopher J. Molloy, interim chancellor of Rutgers University at New Brunswick since July 2018, has been named to the post permanently.

Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, president of City University of New York Queens College, will become chancellor of the City University Of New York on May 1. He will replace Vita C. Rabinowitz, who has served as interim president since James B. Milliken stepped down, and will be the university’s first Latino leader.

Melvyn D. Schiavelli, executive vice president for academic and student services at Northern Virginia Community College, will become interim president on March 15.

Resignations

Dale Whittaker, president of the University of Central Florida since July 2018, resigned on February 19. Whittaker and other university administrators have faced scrutiny from the state House of Representatives’ Public Integrity and Ethics Committee concerning the misspending of leftover operating funds on the construction of a new academic building. Whittaker has told the Orlando Sentinel that he was unaware that the university was misusing the funds.

Retirements

Donald R. Eastman III, president of Eckerd College since 2001, plans to retire on June 30, 2020.

Wendy B. Libby, president of Stetson University since 2009, plans to retire in June 2020. She is the university’s first female leader.

Chief academic officers

Appointments

Mark Willhardt, interim dean and vice president for academic affairs at Monmouth College, has been named to the post permanently.

Other top administrators

Appointments

Tonya Bailey, director of student success at Michigan State University, has been named chief diversity officer at Lansing Community College.

Enku Gelaye, vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, will become vice president and dean of campus life at Emory University in August.

David A. Gingerella, vice president for administration and finance and chief financial officer at Rhode Island College, became vice chancellor for administration and finance at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth on February 25.

Kirk Kolenbrander, vice president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will become an executive vice president in the College of Engineering, Technology and Aeronautics at Southern New Hampshire University in March.

Bernadette Nowakowski, assistant vice president of institutional advancement at Elms College, has been named vice president for institutional advancement.

Jana Schwartz, dean of pathways and student success at Front Range Community College, has been named vice president for student affairs at Paradise Valley Community College.

John Semel, chief strategy officer at Mood Media, in Texas, has been named chief strategy officer at Bridgepoint Education, Inc.

Ruby Z. Shellaway, interim vice chancellor, general counsel, and university secretary at Vanderbilt University, has been named to the post permanently.

Bret Silver, chief strategy and external relations officer at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and former vice president for development at Barnard College, has been named vice president for university advancement at Drew University.

Dana Strait, senior director of corporate strategy and new product development at Education Advisory Board, will become vice president for strategy and finance at Saint Mary’s College, in Indiana, on March 4.

Erik Weissberg, director of clinical education at New England College of Optometry, will become vice president and dean of academic affairs on May 1.

Deans

Appointments

Robert DeHaas, founder of Dallas Teacher Residency, a nonprofit organization that supports teachers in partnership with urban public school districts across North Texas, has been named founding dean of the Early Childhood Education Baccalaureate Institute at Brookhaven College.

Frank Filipetto, interim dean of the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, has been named to the post permanently.

Mary A. Gowan, professor of strategic leadership studies at James Madison University, has been named dean of the Mike Cottrell College of Business at the University of North Georgia.

Tameka Angola Harper, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management and dean of students at Arkansas Baptist College, has been named dean of students at Tuskegee University.

Margaret Watkins, a professor of philosophy at Saint Vincent College, has been named dean of the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Resignations

Brian Till, dean of the College of Business Administration at Marquette University, plans to step down in May. He will return to the faculty after a yearlong sabbatical.

Retirements

Dave Bergen, college associate dean and former dean of students at Suffolk County Community College, plans to retire on March 22.

Other administrators

Appointments

Nancy A. Alvarez, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Chapman University, has been named associate dean of the College of Pharmacy and an associate professor of pharmacy practice and science at the University of Arizona.

Angelika Fretzen, senior vice president of product development at Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been named technology translation director at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

Ronald D. Fricker Jr., professor and head of the department of statistics at Virginia Tech, has been named associate dean of faculty affairs and administration for the College of Science.

Amy Garawitz, senior director of alumni engagement at the New School, has been named director of alumni engagement at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Delrish Moss, former police chief in Ferguson, Mo., has been named police captain overseeing day-shift patrol operations and public information officer for the department at Florida International University.

Mel C. Norwood II, dean of students and chief student-affairs officer at Reinhardt University, has been named associate provost and vice chancellor for the Division of Student Development and Engagement at Winston-Salem State University.

Mary Ritayik, interim police chief at State University of New York at New Paltz, has been named to the post permanently. She is the first woman in the role.

Jesse Tauriac, an associate professor of psychology and director of the Donahue Institute for Ethics, Diversity, and Inclusion at Lasell College, has been named assistant vice president and chief diversity officer.

Shakenna K. Williams, deputy academic director and lead faculty director of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program at Babson College, has been named director of the college’s Center of Women Entrepreneurial Leadership Global Initiative.

Philina Wittke, director of the German Academic Exchange Service in Johannesburg, South Africa, has been named director of the liaison office in the Global Education Office for the partnership between Virginia Tech-Technical University of Darmstadt.

Faculty

Appointments

Jin-Hee Cho, a computer scientist at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland, has been named an associate professor of computer science in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech.

Kelly Hall-Tompkins, a violin soloist and founder and director of Music Kitchen – Food for the Soul, will become a faculty member in violin at Manhattan School of Music in September.

Rachel Somerville, an instructor of art education at the University of Southern Maine, has been named a faculty member in the Master of Arts in Teaching program at Maine College of Art.

Organizations

Appointments

Jo Allen, president of Meredith College, has been named chair of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

Brian Darmody, associate vice president for corporate engagement at the University of Maryland at College Park, has been named chief executive of the Association of University Research Parks.

Dan LeClair, chief strategy and innovation officer at AACSB International, has been named chief executive of the Global Business School Network, a nonprofit organization that partners with business schools, industry, foundations and aid agencies to improve access to quality, locally relevant management education for the developing world.

Maura C. Sullivan, an assistant secretary in the Department of Veterans Affairs, has been named chief executive of the Warrior-Scholar Project, a national nonprofit that hosts free academic boot camps for enlisted veterans at colleges and universities.

Deaths

Robert Hubbard, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering at Michigan State University, died on February 5. He was 75. Hubbard conceived of the Head and Neck Support device, which prevents skull fractures in auto crashes and is now mandatory equipment for professional racing associations. He retired from the university in 2006.

Cynthia A. Littlefield, vice president for federal relations at the Association of Jesuit Colleges & Universities, died on February 5 after a long series of illnesses. She was 67. Littlefield started her career as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and also worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency before she joined the association in 1996 as director of federal relations. In her roles at the association, she lobbied on behalf of federal student-aid programs, and was part of a successful effort to persuade Congress to appropriate federal disaster relief to support colleges in New Orleans that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Caryl E. Peterson, professor emerita of biology at Towson University, died on January 19. She was 82. Peterson joined the faculty in 1960, became a full professor in 1993, and retired in 1996. She also served as a trustee of McDaniel College from 1992 to 2016.

Eugene P. Schwartz, a professor emeritus of chemistry at DePauw University, died on January 29. He was 85. Schwartz joined the faculty in 1962 and retired in 1997.

William Van Alstyne, professor emeritus of law at the College of William & Mary, died on January 29. He was 84. Van Alstyne was a faculty member in the School of Law at Duke University from 1965 to 2004, and appeared before Senate and House committees 17 times from 1968 to 1985. He was also a national board member of the American Civil Liberties Union.

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