New Administrative Roles for Nine Women in Higher Education

Carrie Okinaga was appointed general counsel and vice president for legal affairs for the University of Hawaii System. She has been serving as general counsel for First Hawaiian Bank.

Okinaga is a magna cum laude graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California, where she majored in government and public policy. She earned her law degree at Stanford University.

Celina Clarich Polanco was named vice president of global admissions and enrollment at New York Film Academy in New York City. She has been on a national tour performing in the Tony Award-winning play “In the Heights.”

Polanco has held admissions posts at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts and the TVI Acting Studio.

Lisa Wolf-Wendel has been chosen as the new associate dean for graduate programs and research in the School of Education at the University of Kansas. She is a professor in the department of educational leadership and policy studies at the university.

Dr. Wold-Wendel is a graduate of Stanford University, where she majored in psychology and communication. She holds a master’s degree and doctorate in higher education from the Claremont Graduate School in California.

Elisabeth Medvedow was appointed director of the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy at the Boston College Law School. For the past 10 years, she has been the executive director of the nonprofit group Discovering Justice, which organizes field trips for elementary and middle school students to visit actual courtrooms.

Medvedow holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her law degree at Northeastern University in Boston.

Beth Winkelstein was named vice provost for education at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a professor of bioengineering at the university and has been serving as associate dean for undergraduate education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. She joined the faculty at the university in 2002.

Professor Winkelstein is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Ph.D. in bioengineering from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Elizabeth Smith was appointed associate dean for sciences in the Faculty of Arts Sciences at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She is the Dartmouth Professor of Biological Sciences at the college.

Professor Smith is a graduate of Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. She holds a Ph.D. from Emory University in Atlanta.

Alice Holland will join the staff at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania as director of health and wellness services. She has been serving as director of student health services at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.

Dr. Holland is a graduate of Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. She earned a master’s degree at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in human sexuality at Widener University.

Nicole Gibbs is the new director of undergraduate admissions 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 in Statesboro, 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.

Heidi L. Tracey was appointed vice president for advancement at Texas Woman’s University. She was vice president for institutional advancement at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio.

Tracey is a graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University in Athens.