Thirty Women With New Administrative Positions at Colleges and Universities

Zahra Jamal was named associate director for community engagement at the Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance at Rice University in Houston. She was the director of the Civil Islam Initiative at the University of Chicago. Earlier, she was the director of the Central Asia and International Development Initiative at Michigan State University.

Dr. Jamal is a graduate of Rice University and holds a Ph.D. in social anthropology and Middle Eastern studies from Harvard University.

Katrice W. Jones Morgan was named the inaugural director of diversity and inclusion at the University of Tennessee. Before joining the staff at the university in 2007, she was an assistant district attorney general in the Sixth Judicial Circuit of Tennessee.

Morgan is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, where she majored in English. She earned a law degree at College of Law of Loyola University in New Orleans.

Marissa Schlesigner was named associate dean of academic affairs at Guttman Community College in New York City. She was director of academic affairs for Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York. She taught art history at Kingsborough from 2002 to 2010.

Schlesigner is a graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She holds a master’s degree in ancient studies and is completing work on a Ph.D. in Near and Middle Eastern civilizations at the University of Toronto.

Diondra Smalls is the new director of admissions at Voorhees College in Columbia, South Carolina. Since 2009, she was an enrollment adviser for the University of Phoenix.

Smalls is a graduate of Lander University in Greenwood, South Carolina. She holds a master’s degree from Southern Wesleyan University in Central, South Carolina, and is completing a Ph.D. in management at the University of Phoenix.

Susan Lee was named interim associate commissioner for academic and student affairs for the Institutions of Higher Learning, the governing body overseeing public universities in Mississippi. Since 2012, she has been the director of academic affairs for the Institutions of Higher Learning.

Dr. Lee is a graduate of Mississippi State University, where she majored in elementary education. She holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in professional studies from Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi.

Kellei Samuels is the new assistant vice president for institutional effectiveness, research and strategic planning at Albany State University in Georgia. She was the director of assessment and planning at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Dr. Samuels is a graduate of Jackson State University in Mississippi, where she majored in political science. She holds a master’s degree in public policy from Mississippi State University and a doctorate in urban higher education administration from Jackson State University.

Monica Kowal is the new associate dean of community engaged learning in University College at the University of New Mexico. She was a lecturer in the professional writing program of the university’s department of English language and literature.

Dr. Kowal is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from New Mexico State University.

Rebecca Kee was named director of procurement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She was the chief procurement official for Little Rock Wastewater and formerly was an assistant purchasing agent at Arkansas State University-Beebe.

Kee holds a bachelor’s degree in business management from Arkansas State University-Jonesboro.

Clarenda Stanley-Anderson is the new vice president for institutional advancement at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was the director of development and communications at the Lucy Daniels Center for children’s mental and emotional health services.

Stanley-Anderson is a graduate of the University of Alabama-Huntsville. She holds a master’s degree in psychology and counseling from Troy University in Alabama.

Joyce E.A. Russell was promoted to senior associate dean of learning at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland-College Park. She had been serving as vice dean at the business school. Dr. Russell joined the faculty at the university in 1998.

Dr. Russell is a former tenured full professor in the College of Business Administration at the University of Tennessee. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Akron in Ohio.

Barbara Schwartz-Bechet was appointed associate dean of the College of Education and Rehabilitation at the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York System. Dr. Schwartz-Bechet was chair of the department of special education and early education at Northern Illinois University.

Dr. Schwartz-Bechet is a graduate of Brooklyn College, where she majored in elementary education. She holds a master’s degree from the College of Staten Island and an educational doctorate from Teachers College at Columbia University.

Maurita N. Poole is the new director of the Art Galleries at Clark Atlanta University. For the past three years, Dr. Poole has been the Andrew Mellon Curatorial Fellow for Diversity in the Arts at the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Dr. Poole is a graduate of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where she majored in Arabic and government. She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Emory University in Atlanta.

Maura McMillan was named director of administrative services at the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Massachusetts. She is the former director of financial analysis in the Executive Office of Health and Human Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

McMillan is a graduate of Syracuse University in New York and holds a master of public administration degree from Ohio State University.

Kendra Fershee was appointed associate dean for academic affairs at the College of Law at West Virginia University. She joined the faculty at the law school in 2012. In 2016, she will become editor-in-chief of the Family Law Quarterly, a publication of the American Bar Association.

Professor Fershee is a graduate of Michigan State University and the Tulane Law School in New Orleans.

Leslie Cervantes was named associate vice president for alumni engagement and participation at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. She was chief of staff for the public school system in Las Cruces.

Cervantes holds a bachelor’s degree in human resource management from New Mexico State University.

Stephanie Ingalls named academic coordinator for the athletics department at Utah State University. She was a learning specialist/academic coordinator at the University of Wyoming.

Ingalls holds a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology and a master’s degree in education from the University of Wyoming.

Christine Jackson was appointed assistant athletics director for academics at Mississippi State University. Since 2012, she has been director of student services at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

Jackson holds a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and a master’s degree in sports management from the University of Kentucky.

Tracy Vosburgh is the new senior associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She was associate vice president of university communications at Cornell University.

Vosburgh has been on the staff at Cornell since 2006. She is a graduate of Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Elana Friedman is the new campus rabbi and Chaplain for Jewish Life at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Rabbi Friedman is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where she majored in environmental studies. She earned a master’s degree in Hebrew letters at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pennsylvania.

Patricia Davies was named associate dean for research in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Colorado State University. She will continue to serve as a professor of occupational therapy at the university.

Dr. Davies is a graduate of Colorado State University. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in neuroscience and developmental psychology at the University of Wyoming.

Jody L. Jellison was appointed director of the Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She will also hold the title of assistant vice chancellor for agricultural research and engagement. Dr. Jellison will begin her new job in January. She has been serving as the associate director of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station at Virginia Tech.

Dr. Jellison is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, where she majored in botany and plant pathology. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in plant pathology from Oregon State University.

Suzanne Silitch is the new director of communications for the School of Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. She was director of creative services for Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Silitch is a graduate of the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She earned a master of fine arts degree in painting at Stony Brook University of the State University of New York System.

Jamie Hunt was named director of public and media relations at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. She was director of web strategy and interactive media at Radford University in Virginia.

Hunt is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, where she majored in journalism. She holds a master’s degree in integrated marketing from West Virginia University.

Eileen Strempel was appointed senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Cincinnati. She was an assistant vice president and a professor of art and music history at Syracuse University in New York.

Dr. Strempel is a graduate of the University of Rochester. She holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in music from Indiana University.

Bethel Nathan was named director of the ALANA (African American, Latino/a, Asian, and Native American) Center at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She was the assistant director for campus programming at Colorado State University.

Nathan is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston. She earned a master’s degree at Boston University.

Meredith Sherlin has been promoted to director of admission at North Dakota State University in Fargo. She was associate director of admission for 12 years and has served as interim director since February.

Sherlin holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mass communication from North Dakota State University.

Patty Maysent was appointed interim chief executive officer for University of California San Diego Health. She joined UCSD Health in 2012 as chief of staff to the CEO and in 2013 she was named chief strategy officer.

Maysent is a graduate of Stanford University. She holds an MBA and a master of public health degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jillian Weston was named associate athletic director for student-athlete academic success at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. She was assistant director of student-athlete academic services at West Virginia University.

Weston is a graduate of Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk and earned a master’s degree in forensic psychology from Argosy University.

Jennifer Reinhardt Lynch was named vice president for institutional advancement for Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was a senior vice president for Wells Fargo Private Bank.

Lynch is a graduate of Randolph Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. She earned a law degree at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Rose Ritts was appointed executive vice president of innovation at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. She will begin her new job on November 1. She has been serving as executive director of the Office of Licensing and Ventures at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

During her tenure at the Office of Licensing and Ventures, revenues increased from $3 million to over $37 million.