Ten Women Taking on New Administrative Positions in Higher Education

LaShondra Peebles, vice president for enrollment management at Chicago State University, was named a commissioner of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools. She is the first African American women to serve as a commissioner in the agency’s 100-year history.

Peebles holds bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of Illinois and is completing work there on a doctorate in higher education administration.

Michelle Lepore was appointed assistant dean of admission for alumni volunteer relations at Stanford University. She has been serving as associate dean of students at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She is the former dean of students at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

Lepore is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Linda Cataldo is the new vice president for human resources at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. She has been CEO of LEC Human Resource and Organizational Development Counseling. From 2002 to 2005, she was director of human resources for the health sciences campuses of Tufts University.

Cataldo holds degrees from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco, St. Mary’s College of California, and the University of San Francisco.

Meredith Wells-Lepley was promoted to director of research and consulting at the Institute for Workplace Innovation at the University of Kentucky. She was the acting co-director of the institute. Dr. Wells-Lepley previously served on the faculty at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond.

Dr. Wells-Lepley is a graduate of Randolph-Macon College and holds a Ph.D. in social ecology from the University of California at Irvine.

Keeley M. Powell was appointed assistant director of recruitment and diversity in the Office of Graduate and Professional Education at the University of Delaware. She was the assistant director of academic transition programs at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey.

Dr. Powell holds a bachelor’s degree and an educational doctorate from the University of Delaware. She also earned a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Nancy Wentworth was named director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. She has been serving as chair of the department of teacher education at the university. She is the former associate dean of the university’s School of Education.

Dr. Wentworth holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, all from the University of Utah.

Tamela McNulty Eitle is the new associate dean for program and curricular development for the College of Letters and Science at Montana State University. She is an associate professor of sociology at the university, having joined the faculty in 2006. She previously taught at the University of Miami.

A graduate of the University of Kansas, Dr. Eitle hold a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University.

Rebecca Benfield was appointed associate dean for graduate programs in the College of Nursing at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. She has been on the faculty at the nursing school since 1999.

Dr. Benfield is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky and a doctorate in nursing from the University of South Carolina.

Jennifer M. Schopf is the new director of international networking at Indiana University in Bloomington. She was a program officer at the National Science Foundation and worked for seven years as a scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory, operated by the University of Chicago.

Dr. Schopf holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California at San Diego.

Kathy Jones was appointed assistant vice president for project management and engineering at Rice University in Houston. She was serving in the post on an interim basis since the beginning of the year. She joined the staff at the university in 2006.

Jones is registered architect and a graduate of the University of Texas.