A Dozen Women Taking on New Administrative Duties in Higher Education

Leticia Smith-Evans was named vice president for institutional diversity and equity at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. She has been serving as interim director of the education practice at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Dr. Smith-Evans is a 1999 graduate of Williams College. She earned a law degree and a doctorate in educational leadership and policy analysis from the University of Wisconsin.

Jennifer Broomfield was appointed Title IX coordinator at Florida State University in Tallahassee, effective June 1. She has been serving as manager for the National Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Program at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Broomfield is a graduate of Baruch College of the City University of New York and the Brooklyn Law School. She holds a master of social work degree from Hunter College in New York City and is currently studying for a master of public health degree at George Washington University.

Erica Dunlap was appointed major gifts officer in the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs for the Florida A&M University College of Law in Orlando. She is the founder of the Crown Communications Group, which specializes in diversity development relationship strategy.

Dunlap was Miss America for 2004. She is a graduate of the University of Central Florida, where she majored in public relations and marketing.

Ebru Kardan is the new director of external affairs and communication for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She was communications manager for the career development center at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Kardan is a graduate of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where she double majored in philosophy and art history.

Ann D. Thornton was appointed vice provost and University Librarian at Columbia University in New York City. Her appointment is effective on June 1. She has been serving as the Andrew W. Mellon Director at the New York Public Libraries. Earlier in her career, she was a systems librarian at the University of Houston.

Thornton is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a master’s degree in information studies from Florida State University.

Mayola Rowser is the new director of Graduate Studies at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. She has served as interim director since February 2014. Previously, she was assistant dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professions and chair of the doctor of nursing practice program at the university. She joined the staff at the university in 2004.

Dr. Rowser holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Southern Indiana. She earned certification as a nurse practitioner, a doctor of nursing practice degree and a Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis.

Nicole Gibbs is the new director of undergraduate admissions in the Division of Enrollment Management at North Carolina Central University in Durham. She was vice provost of access and enrollment services and interim dean of student affairs at the University of the Virgin Islands.

Dr. Gibbs is a graduate of Georgia Southern University, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree in English education from Columbus State University in Georgia and a doctorate in educational leadership from Clark Atlanta University.

Kristin Hughes will be the next director of athletics at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She has been serving as director of athletics for the Cleveland Height School District in Ohio. She will begin her new duties on July 21.

Hughes has served as head women’s basketball coach at Colgate University and Case Western Reserve University. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Elms College in Chicopee, Massachusetts, and a master’s degree in exercise and sports studies from Smith College.

Anne Dinneen was appointed chief investment officer at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. In this post she will manage the college’s $922 million endowment. Dinneen has been serving since 2004 as director of investments for the James Irvine Foundation in San Francisco.

Dinneen is a graduate of Princeton University, where she majored in economics. She holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Asya Besova Cooley is the new director of development for the library, the Graduate School, and the Honors College at Mississippi State University. She has been serving as director of annual giving at the university.

A native of Russia, Cooley holds a bachelor’s degree from Alcorn State University in Mississippi and a master’s degree in mass communication from Louisiana State University.

Pamela W. Connelly was promoted to associate vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion at the University of Pittsburgh. She has been serving as an associate general counsel at the university. Connelly joined the university’s legal staff in 2002.

Connelly is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Kellie Peterson was named legal counsel at Montana State University. She has been practicing law in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Peterson is a native of Butte, Montana. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, and a law degree from the University of Montana.