Eight Women Who Have Been Appointed to Dean Positions in Higher Education

Katherine O’Dair was named dean of students at Harvard College. She has been serving as associate vice president for student affairs at Boston College. Dr. O’Dair is a former assistant dean of student life at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. O’Dair is a graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She holds a master’s degree in student personnel and counseling from Northeastern University in Boston and a Ph.D. in higher education from Boston College.

Kimberlee Kae Kidwell was appointed dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois, effective November 1. She will hold the Robert A. Easter Chair at the university. Dr. Kidwell has been serving as the executive associate dean of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences at Washington State University. She has been at Washington State University since 1994.

Dr. Kidwell holds two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Illinois. She earned master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Susan Fliss was named dean of libraries at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She has been serving as associate university librarian for research and director of the Monroe C. Gutman Library at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Dr. Fliss is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she majored in Canadian studies. She earned a master’s degree in history at the University of Ottawa, a master of library and information science degree from the University at Albany of the State University of New York System, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Maine.

Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell was appointed dean of the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois. She has been serving as an associate dean and the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Hanley-Maxwell holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, all from the University of Illinois.

Christine Hailey was named dean of the College of Science and Engineering at Texas State University in San Marcos. She has been serving as dean of engineering at Utah State University. Dr. Hailey joined the faculty at Utah State in 1994 and was named dean in 2013.

Dr. Hailey is a graduate of Colorado State University, where she majored in mathematics. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Oklahoma.

Lenora Campbell was appointed interim dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. She is the former associate dean and professor in the School of Nursing at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina.

Dr. Campbell is a graduate of Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Maryland and a doctorate in community mental health from the University of Alabama Birmingham.

Susan Mehrer was named the next dean of libraries at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She will begin her new role on December 1. Mehrer has been serving as the deputy librarian at the University of Cambridge in England.

Mehrer is a graduate of the University of British Columbia in Canada, where she majored in English and German. She holds a master’s degree in English and an executive MBA from Queen’s University in Belfast, and a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge.

Cheryl Addy was promoted to vice provost and dean of the Graduate School at the University of South Carolina. She has been serving as senior associate dean for academic affairs at the School of Public Health at the university.

Dr. Addy is a graduate of Furman University in South Carolina, where she majored in mathematics. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in biostatistics from Emory University in Atlanta.