Three Women Who Are Stepping Down From Key Positions in Higher Education

Elizabeth Rodke Washburn will step down as chief of staff to President Garnett S. Stokes at the University of New Mexico at the end of August. She has held this position since January 2017. Earlier, Washburn was chief compliance officer at the university.

Washburn is a graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Law. She will join her husband who was recently appointed dean of the University of Iowa College of Law

Alice Brekke, vice president for finance and operations at the University of North Dakota has retired. She has been on the staff at the university for 39 years and has led the finance division for the past nine years.

Brekke holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in accountancy from the University of North Dakota.

Ingrid S. Stafford, vice president for financial operations and treasurer at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, will step down from her post on September 1. She will serve as a senior advisor to the university for a period of one year before her retirement on August 31, 2019. Stafford joined the staff at the university in 1978. She has held her current post since 2014.

Stafford received a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Wittenberg University in Ohio. She holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Michigan, and a master’s degree in finance and not-for-profit management from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.