Here Are Five Women Who Were Recently Appointed to Dean Positions

DeBrenna LaFa Agbenyiga was appointed dean of the Graduate School at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She will also hold the title of vice provost. Dr. Agbenyiga has been serving as associate dean for graduate studies and inclusion in the College of Social Science at Michigan State University. She also was an associate professor in the School of Social Work at Michigan State.

Dr. Agbenyiga is a graduate of the University of South Carolina. She holds a master of social work degree and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University.

Carol Fierke was named the next dean of the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies at the University of Michigan. She will become dean on September 1. Dr. Fierke is a professor and chair of the department of chemistry at the university. She joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1999.

Professor Fierke is a graduate of Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Brandeis University.

Marie C. Foley was appointed dean of the College of Nursing at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. She has been serving as interim dean since August 2014. Dr. Foley joined the university faculty in 1985 and was named an associate professor in the College of Nursing in 2005.

Dr. Foley is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from New York University.

Lauren A. Benton was named the next dean of the College of Arts and Science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her appointment is effective July 1. Dr. Benton is the Silver Professor of History and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science at New York University.

Dr. Benton is a graduate of Harvard University. She is the first person to earn a joint Ph.D. in anthropology and history at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Benton is the author of five books including the award-winning Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900 (Cambridge University Press, 2001).

Barbara Ritter is the new dean of the Wall College of Business Administration at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. She has served in the post on an interim basis since June 2013. Dean Ritter has been on the faculty at the university since 2003.

Dr. Ritter is a graduate of Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Akron in Ohio.