Eleven Women in Higher Education Taking on New Administrative Responsibilities

Heidi Gansert was appointed special assistant to the president for external affairs at the University of Nevada at Reno. A former elected member of the Nevada State Assembly, she recently served as chief of staff for Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval.

A graduate of Santa Clara University in California, Gansert holds an MBA from the University of Nevada at Reno.

Debra K. Latimore was named vice president for fiscal affairs at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. She has been serving in the post on an interim basis. She is the former controller at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte.

Latimore is a graduate of Walsh College in Troy, Michigan. A certified public accountant, she holds a master’s degree in financial management from the University of Maryland.

Katie Gehrt was promoted to communications manager for the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She was assistant director of communications and marketing for Virginia Tech’s Division of Student Affairs. Prior to joining the staff at the university, she was manager of public relations and advertising for Alltech, an animal health and nutrition company based in Lexington, Kentucky.

Gehrt is a graduate of Virginia Tech where she doubled majored in psychology and graphic design. She earned a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from West Virginia University.

Shannon Cofield was named senior counsel to the president for strategic partnerships at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. She was executive vice president for RMi Inc. in Des Moines. Cofield served for eight years as president of the United Way for Central Iowa.

Cofield is a graduate of Georgia State University and holds an MBA from the University of Iowa.

Susan Stagg-Williams, an associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering at the University of Kansas, was appointed as the university’s faculty athletics representative. She will work on issues relating to compliance as well as the academic programs of student athletes.

Dr. Stagg-Williams joined the faculty at the university in 1999. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

Jacqueline Spears, was appointed interim associate dean for academic and research programs at the Olathe campus of Kansas State University. She is a professor of curriculum and instruction and director of the Center for Science Education at the Manhattan campus of the university.

Dr. Spears holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, all from Kansas State University.

Christi Kasten was named interim executive director of the alumni association and associate vice president for alumni relations at Oregon State University. Since 2009, she has been the senior associate executive director of the association.

A 1986 graduate of Oregon State University, Kasten earned a master’s degree in public administration from Portland State University.

Dawn Stoneking was promoted to assistant director for finance and external initiatives for the Institute for Distance and Distributed Learning at Virginia Tech. She was serving as assistant director of the Continuing and Professional Education program at the university.

Stoneking holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in social work from Radford University. She is working on a Ph.D. in public administration and public affairs at Virginia Tech.

Beverly J. Landrum was appointed associate university counsel and chief compliance officer at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. She had been serving as manager of equal employment opportunity programs in the university’s Office of Human Resources.

Landrum holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the Medical University of South Carolina and a juris doctorate from the University of South Carolina.

Crista C. Gray was hired as director of TRIO Student Support Services and the Ronald McNair Scholars program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is the former assistant director for the McNair Scholars program at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.

Gray is a graduate of Syracuse University and holds a master’s degree in community-clinical psychology from Mansfield University in Pennsylvania. She is currently a doctoral candidate at Syracuse University.

Nathalie Duval-Couetil, director of the certificate in entrepreneurship and innovation program and professor of technology leadership and innovation at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, was elected vice president for research of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Professor Duval-Couetil is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She earned an MBA at Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Purdue University.