New Administrative Roles for 22 Women at American Colleges and Universities

Maricela Olivia was appointed associate vice provost for academic and faculty support at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Dr. Olivia is an associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the university. She has been on the faculty at the university since 2005.

Dr. Olivia is a graduate of Yale University, where she majored in Spanish literature. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Houston and a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

Sharon L. Davies is the new vice provost and chief diversity officer at Ohio State University. She holds the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties at the university’s Moritz College of Law. She has been on the faculty at the law school since 1995. Professor Davies is also the executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race & Ethnicity at the university.

Professor Davies is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she majored in political science. She earned her law degree at Columbia University in New York City.

Gita Runkle was appointed associate dean of Emeritus College at Santa Monica College in California. She has been serving in the post on an interim basis since January 2014. Emeritus College offers classes to older adults in lifelong learning programs.

Runkle is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. She holds a master’s degree in higher education from New York University and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Tabatha Terrell-Brooks is the new director of alumni and constituency relations at Jackson State University in Mississippi. She was the special assistant to the vice president for institutional advancement.

Terrell-Brooks holds a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from Jackson State University.

Rica Calhoun was promoted to University Attorney at Western Illinois University in Macomb. Since 2011, she has been serving as assistant director of Equal Opportunity and Access at the university. For the fist six months of this year, Calhoun served as interim associate vice president for student services.

Dr. Calhoun is a graduate of the University of Central Florida in Orlando. She holds a master’s degree in international affairs from Florida State University and a juris doctorate from the College of William and Mary School of Law in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Alica Chavira-Prado is the new special assistant to the vice provost for diversity and inclusion at Ohio University in Athens. She was serving as a diversity consultant. Dr. Chavira-Prado is the former coordinator of the Office of Diversity and Equity at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

Dr. Chavira-Prado earned a Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles and conducted postdoctoral research at the university’s Chicano Studies Research Center.

Pat Reid was appointed director of instructional innovation in the Center for Excellence in eLearning at the University of Cincinnati. She was the manager of Innovations in Technology and Learning at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Dr. Reid holds a master’s degree in education from Cleveland State University and an educational doctorate in adult learning from Nova Southeastern University.

Erica Austin was named interim co-provost at Washington State University in Pullman. She is a professor and director of the Murrow Center for Media and Health Promotion Research at the university.

Dr. Austin is a graduate of George Washington University in the nation’s capital, where she majored in journalism. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in communication from Stanford University.

Stacey Millett is the new executive director of the Center for Health and Wellness at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. She was a senior program officer for the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation.

Millett is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where she majored in English. She holds a master’s degree in television and radio from Syracuse University and an MBA from the University of Minnesota.

Heather Wagoner was appointed director of student engagement and campus life at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg.  Since 2011, she has been associate director of student involvement at the University of Kentucky.

Wagoner is a graduate of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She holds a master’s degree from the University of South Carolina and is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Kentucky.

Michelle Richards-Babb is the inaugural director of the Office of Undergraduate Research at West Virginia University in Morgantown. She is an associate professor of chemistry at the university and has been on the faculty for more than two decades.

Dr. Richards-Babb is a graduate of Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. She holds a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Lynda Hardy is the new associate dean for research at the College of Nursing of the University of Tennessee. She was the senior program director at the National Institute of Nursing Research in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Hardy earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the State University of New York. She holds a master’s degree in nursing from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and a Ph.D. in nursing and epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Michele Masucci was promoted to vice president for research administration at Temple University in Philadelphia. She had been serving as vice provost for research and is a professor of geography at the university.

Dr. Masucci is a graduate of Salisbury University in Maryland, where she majored in geography and urban planning. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in geography from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Latasha Wade was named interim associate provost for faculty affairs and strategic initiatives at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. She is an assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy at the university. Dr. Wade joined the university’s faculty in 2014. Earlier, she served on the faculty at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina.

Dr. Wade is a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park, where she double majored in economics and microbiology. She holds a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore.

Kathy Headley was appointed senior associate dean of the Division of Collaborative Academic Services for the College of Health, Education, and Human Development at Clemson University in South Carolina. Professor Headley joined the faculty at Clemson in 1987 and currently serves as a professor of literacy.

Dr. Headley earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Georgia. She holds an educational doctorate from Auburn University in Alabama.

Spring Miller is the inaugural assistant dean for public interest at the Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, Tennessee. Miller joined Vanderbilt Law School as a social justice placement specialist in the summer of 2014.

Miller is a graduate of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and earned her law degree at Harvard University.

W. Rochelle Calhoun was named vice president for campus life at Princeton University in New Jersey. Since 2008, she has been dean of students and vice president for campus life at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Calhoun is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she majored in theater arts and politics. She holds a master of fine arts degree in theater from Columbia University.

Alice J. Raucher was appointed architect for the University of Virginia. She has been serving as senior architect and major projects planner for the Office of Facilities at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Raucher is a graduate of Queens College of the City University of New York. She holds a master of architecture degree from Syracuse University.

Yesomi Umolu was named exhibitions curator at the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago. She was the assistant curator at the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.

Umolu holds a master’s degree in architectural design from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and a master’s degree in curating contemporary art from the Royal College of Art in London.

Alice Dixon was appointed president of the board of the Alumnae Association at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. She is chemistry teacher at the Collegiate School in Richmond.

Dixon is a 1982 graduate of Sweet Briar College with a bachelor’s degree in biology. She earned a master’s degree from the University of Richmond.

Kelli Rainey was named vice president of academic and student support services and chief operating officer of institutional effectiveness for the Division of Academic and Student Support Services at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. She was dean of academic support services at the university.

Rainey is a graduate of Lynchburg College in Virginia. She holds a master’s degree from Fairfield University in Connecticut and an educational doctorate from Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois.

Kathryn A. Sloan was appointed associate dean of fine arts and humanities for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She is an associate professor of history at the university and has been on the faculty since 2004. Dr. Sloan latest book is Women’s Roles in Latin America and the Caribbean (Greenwood Publishing, 2011).

Dr. Sloan is a graduate of Kansas State University, where she majored in psychology. She holds an MBA, a master’s degree, and a Ph.D. in Latin America history from the University of Kansas.