New Administrative Duties for Nine Women in American Higher Education

Robiaun Rogers Charles was named vice president for college advancement at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. She was associate vice president and executive director of development for the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Charles is a graduate of Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, where she majored in philosophy. She holds a master’s degree in nonprofit administration from Georgia State University in Atlanta and a doctorate in higher education leadership and policy from Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

Courtney Surls was appointed vice president for development and alumni relations at American University in Washington, D.C. She has been serving as senior vice president for development at Newseum in Washington. She is the former vice president for development at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Surls is a graduate of Iowa State University, where she majored in music and music curriculum. She holds a master’s degree in school administration from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Jane E. Smith is the new vice president for college relations at Spelman College in Atlanta. Since 2002, Dr. Smith has been president of the Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement at Spelman College. She is a former president and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women.

Dr. Smith is a graduate of Spelman College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology. She holds a master’s degree from Emory University in Atlanta and a Ph.D. in social policy analysis from Harvard University.

Sharon Saunders was named chief communications and marketing officer at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She is the former executive assistant to the president for communication and chief communications officer at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.

Saunders holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in English from Florida A&M University.

Janet Dees was appointed curator of the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She has been serving as curator at SITE Santa Fe, a contemporary art museum in New Mexico.

Dees is a graduate of Fordham University in New York, where she majored in art history. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Delaware and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in art history at that university.

Danette Saylor was named vice president for student affairs and success at Albany State University in Georgia. She is the former director of the Center for Disability Access and Resources at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.

Dr. Saylor holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in counselor education from Florida A&M University. She earned a Ph.D. in rehabilitation counseling at Florida State University.

Kimberly P. Law was appointed learning engineer at the Simon Initiative of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. She will develop strategies to use technology-enhanced-learning resources.

Law is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds a master’s degree in business administration from Boston University.

Nicole Morgan Agard is the new director of employee relations at Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah. She previously worked in the Office of Employee Relations for the governor of New Jersey.

Agard is a graduate of Binghamton University of the State University of New York System, where she majored in political science and African American studies. She holds a law degree from Northeastern University in Boston.

Paula A. Sanders, vice provost for academic affairs and professor of history at Rice University in Houston, was named interim director of the Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance at the university. Dr. Sanders is the author of Creating Medieval Cairo: Empire, Religion, and Architectural Preservation in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (American University in Cairo Press, 2008).

Dr. Sanders is a graduate of Northwestern University and earned a Ph.D. at Princeton University.