Nineteen Women Appointed to Administrative Posts in Higher Education

Marlene De La Cruz-Guzman is the new director of the Office for Multicultural Student Success and Retention at Ohio University. For the past four years, she has been a learning services specialist for the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Dr. De La Cruz-Guzman earned a Ph.D. in African literature from Ohio University in 2014.

Frances D. Graham is the new interim director of the African American Cultural Center at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. She was associate vice chancellor for academic affairs and student success initiatives, associate vice chancellor for student affairs, and interim vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management at North Carolina Central University in Durham.

Dr. Graham holds bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in education from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Melanie Brown has been name executive director of the St. Augustine’s campus of St. Johns River State College in Florida. Since 2011, she has been serving as the vice president for academic affairs for the entire three-campus system of the college.

Dr. Brown is a graduate of Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. She holds a doctorate from the University of Central Florida.

Candace Campbell Jackson was named chief of staff for Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud. Jackson will also hold the title of vice president at the university. Jackson has been serving as vice president for student success and vice provost for academic success at the University of Akron in Ohio.

Jackson is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she majored in journalism. She earned a juris doctorate at the University of Akron.

Carling Sitterley was appointed assistant director of admissions and student services at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine in Blacksburg, Virginia. She was a project assistant for the Center for Public and Corporate Veterinary Medicine.

Dr. Sitterley is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she majored in biology. She earned a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

Marsha Fowles is the new director of community engagement at Claremont Lincoln University in California. She was the associate director of development for the School of Business at the University of California, Riverside.

Fowles holds a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric and sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. She earned a juris doctorate from Loyola Law School.

Deborah Clarke was appointed vice provost for academic personnel at Arizona State University. She is a professor of English at the university and has been on the Arizona State faculty since 2008. Earlier, she taught for 20 years at Pennsylvania State University.

Professor Clarke is the author of Driving Women: Fiction and Automobile Culture in Twentieth-Century America (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007). She holds a Ph.D. from Yale University.

Cynthia Rooney was named the interim executive director of the Los Alamos campus of the University of New Mexico. The campus enrolls about 850 students and women make up 55 percent of the student body. Dr. Rooney had been serving as dean of instruction at the Los Alamos campus.

A licensed certified public accountant, Dr. Rooney holds a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Tennessee.

Kelly Reynolds is the new director of state relations at the University of Kansas. She has been serving as assistant director of government relations at Wichita State University in Kansas. Earlier, Reynolds was assistant to the vice president of institutional advancement at Newman University in Wichita.

Reynolds is a graduate of the University of Kansas with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

Kim Keffer was named director of enrollment and student services at Ohio University Southern in Ironton. Dr. Keffer joined the staff at Ohio University in 1992 and has served in a number of administrative posts.

Dr. Keffer holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education and a doctorate in higher education administration, all from Ohio University.

Molly O’Mara was appointed associate director of athletics for communications and public relations at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She was the associate communication services director at the University of Arizona. Earlier, she served as assistant media relations director at the University of Arkansas.

O’Mara earned a bachelor’s degree in sports management from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts.

Rebekah Young was named associate director of the Institute for Disability Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi. She has been on the staff at the institute for the past five years.

Dr. Young earned a master of public health degree and a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Lori A. Ringhand was named associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Georgia School of Law. The holder of the J. Alton Hosch Professorship, Ringhand joined the faculty at the law school in 2008. She is the co-author of Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings and Constitutional Change (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

Professor Ringhand is a graduate of the University of Oxford in England. She earned her law degree at the University of Wisconsin.

Erin Wheeler is the new assistant vice president for academic support services at Kentucky State University. She was a biology instructor at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Dr. Wheeler is a graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University. She holds a master’s degree in biology and a doctorate in science and mathematics education from Southern University.

Kathy Jones was promoted to associate vice president for facilities engineering and planning at Rice University in Houston, Texas. She has been serving as assistant vice president for project management and engineering.

Jones earned a bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Tina Smith was promoted to associate dean and director of Inclusion Initiatives and Cultural Competence at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She was serving as senior director for student welfare in the area of student health and wellness. 

Dr. Smith holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of North Alabama. She earned a doctorate in higher education administration and supervision at Tennessee State University.

Christine Sanni is the inaugural vice president for communications and marketing at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Sanni has been on the staff at the university for eight years. Before arriving at Tufts in 2007, Sanni served as executive director of advancement communications and marketing at Boston College.

Sanni is a graduate of Tufts University.

Na’ilah Nasir was named vice chancellor for equity and inclusion at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Nasir holds the Birgeneau Chair in Educational Disparities and the Williams Chair of African American Studies. She joined the Berkeley faculty in 2008 after serving on the faculty at Stanford University.

Professor Nasir is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in social welfare and psychology. She holds a Ph.D. psychological studies in education from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Kristen Brown was appointed associate vice president of news, communications, and media at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She was the assistant vice president for strategic communications and adviser to the provost at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Brown is a graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she majored in American studies. She later studied architectural history at the University of Virginia.