Zeynep Hansen has been appointed interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at Boise State University in Idaho. For the past six years, she has served as the university’s vice provost for academic planning and institutional effectiveness. A faculty member in economics since 2007, she has previously served as an associate dean in the College of Business and Economics and chair of the department of economics.
Dr. Hansen is a graduate of Boise State University, where she double-majored in economics and mathematics. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Arizona.
Mahpiua Deas has been named provost and dean of the faculty at Lincoln University of Pennsylvania. She first joined the university in 2010 and currently teaches as a full professor in the department of language and literature. Additionally, she is director of the university’s Mellon III Black Freedom Studies Grant and the Horace Mann Bond Honors Program. Earlier in her tenure, she was associate dean of faculty.
Dr. Deas received her bachelor’s degree in Spanish with a focus in Africana studies from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, and her master’s degree in creative writing from Temple University in Philadelphia. She earned a second master’s degree and Ph.D. in English from Pennsylvania State University.
Piyusha Singh has been named interim provost of Lincoln University of Missouri. Her background includes experience in both higher education and the private sector. Previously, she spent seven years with Columbia College in Missouri, serving in various leadership roles such as vice president for online education, chief of staff, and provost and senior vice president. More recently, she was an executive with Big Tree Medical Corporation.
Dr. Singh earned her Ph.D. in public policy and management from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Nell Jessup Newton has been appointed interim provost at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. With over 40 years of experience in academia, she currently holds the title of professor emerita of law at the University of Notre Dame Law School. She served as the school’s tenth dean from 2009 to 2019. During the 2022-2023 academic year, she served as interim dean of Wake Forest’s law school.
Professor Newton received her bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary humanities with a focus on ancient Greek language from the University of California, Berkeley and her juris doctorate from what is now the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.