Seven Women Who Have Been Appointed to Administrative Positions in Higher Education

Karen Helderman has been named the executive director of audit and compliance services at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. She was audit director for the Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts.

Helderman is a graduate of Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, where she majored in accounting. She holds an MBA from Virginia Tech.

Denise Wallace has been named vice president and general counsel at Florida A&M University. She currently serves in the same capacity at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Dr. Wallace holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a master’s degree in intercultural leadership and management from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, and a juris doctorate from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Dr. Wallace also holds a master of laws degree and a doctorate of laws degree in intercultural human rights/international law from St. Thomas University.

Catharine Young has been named director of the New York State Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture at Cornell AgriTech. She has served as state senator from New York’s 57th district for the past 13 years.

Young is a magna cum laude graduate of St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, New York, where she majored in mass communications.

Lorna M. Ricotta has been named vice chancellor for institutional advancement at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. She was executive director of the Fayetteville Technical Community College Foundation.

Ricotta holds a bachelor’s degree in music and an MBA both from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Arlene Wesley Cash has been named the inaugural vice president for enrollment management at Frostburg State University in Maryland. She was vice president for enrollment management at Guilford College in North Carolina.

Cash holds a bachelor’s degree from Keruka College in New York and a master’s degree from Kent State University in Ohio. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Georgia.

Lili Anderson has been named the inaugural executive director of visual and performing arts for the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She has been an administrator at the university since 2008, most recently serving as the interim executive director of the Alys Stephens Center.

Anderson is a graduate of Auburn University in Alabama where she double majored in international trade and Spanish. She holds an MBA in entrepreneurship from Syracuse University in New York.

Virginia Siegel has been named folks arts coordinator for the new Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts program at the University of Arkansas Libraries. She was the folklife specialist for the Kentucky Folklife Program at Western Kentucky University.

Siegel is a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia where she majored in historic preservation. She holds a master’s degree in folk studies from Western Kentucky University.