Nine Women Appointed to New High-Level Administrative Posts at Colleges and Universities

Cassandra Lachica-Chavez was named registrar at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. She will begin her new duties in November. She has been serving as director of admissions and registrar at the University of Texas-El Paso.

Dr. Lachica-Chavez is a graduate of the University of Texas-El Paso. She holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in educational administration from New Mexico State University.

Beth Bryant-Claxton is the new executive director of the Institute for Disability Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr. Bryant-Claxton was clinical director of Arkansas START (Systemic, Therapeutic Assessment, Resources, and Treatment).

Dr. Bryant-Claxton holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Florida.

LeAnn Alexander was promoted to director of campus recreation at the Mississippi University for Women. She was assistant director of recreation and has served as interim director since April.

Alexander holds a bachelor’s degree in family studies and a master’s degree in counselor education from Mississippi State University in Starksville.

Sian Beilock was named vice provost for academic initiatives at the University of Chicago. She is a professor of psychology at the university and has been on the faculty since 2005. She is the author of Choke: The Secret to Performing Under Pressure (Constable, 2011) and the forthcoming How the Body Knows Its Mind: The Surprising Power of the Physical Environment to Influence How You Think and Feel (Atria, 2015).

Dr. Bellock is a graduate of the University of California, San Diego, where she majored in cognitive science. She holds Ph.D.s in kinesiology and psychology from Michigan State University.

Jacqueline A. Washington was promoted to associate vice president for academic affairs at Delaware State University in Dover. She was the director of general education and university studies at Delaware State. Before joining the staff at Delaware State, she was assistant dean for access and academic development programs at the University of Delaware.

Dr. Washington in a graduate of Tougaloo College in Mississippi. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Wilmington in Delaware and an educational doctorate from the University of Delaware.

Haiyan Gao was named vice chancellor for academic affairs at Duke Kunshan University in China. The university currently has three graduate programs that offer degrees from Duke University. She has been serving as the Henry Newson Professor and chair of the department of physics at Duke University. Professor Gao will begin her new role in January.

Dr. Gao has been on the Duke University faculty since 2002. A native of Shanghai, she is a graduate of Tsinghua University and holds a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Jessica Fiske Bailey was appointed executive director of the University of California, Santa Cruz Arboretum. She has been on the staff at the university for nine years and has been serving as assistant vice provost for academic affairs.

Bailey is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, where she majored in political science. She earned a master of public administration degree from the University of Southern California.

Eileen Loftus-Berlin was promoted to vice president of budgeting and student accounts at Berkeley College, which operates several campus in the New York metropolitan area. She was vice president for student accounts and has been on the college’s staff since 2001.

Loftus-Berlin is a graduate of Fairleigh-Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey. She holds an MBA and a juris doctorate from Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.

Jolynne Tschetter was appointed executive director for corporate and foundation research relations in the Office for Research and Creative Activity at North Dakota State University in Fargo. Since 2008, Dr. Tschetter has been the commercialization manager for the North Dakota Department of Commerce.

Dr. Tschetter is a graduate of St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. She holds a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Washington State University in Pullman.