New Administrative Appointments for Thirteen Women in Higher Education

Betty H. Olinger was appointed program administrator for the School of Nursing at Kentucky State University. She was chair of the School of Nursing from September 2004 to her retirement in 2013. Since then she has served on the board of trustees of Berea College in Kentucky.

Dr. Olinger is a graduate of Berea College where she majored in nursing. She holds a master’s degree in pediatric nursing education and a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Kentucky.

Diane Ryan has been named vice president of strategic initiatives at Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona. She currently serves as dean of engineering science and mathematics at Tidewater Community College in Virginia.

Dr. Ryan holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree both in communication from Western Illinois University. She holds a Ph.D. in community college leadership from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Liz Kinsley has been named director of undergraduate admission at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She has served as director of communications in Northwestern’s Office of Undergraduate Admission for the past four years.

Dr. Kinsley is a graduate of Yale University where she double-majored in English and music. She holds a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from New York University and a Ph.D. in rhetoric and public culture from Northwestern University.

Joy Gaslevic has been named interim vice provost for institutional equity at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She joined the university in 2016 as assistant vice provost and Title IX coordinator.

Gaslevic is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She holds a juris doctorate from the University of Baltimore Law School.

Allisen Penn has been named associate dean for extension and outreach in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia. She has spent the last decade as the regional program leader for the University of Tennessee Extension.

Dr. Penn holds a bachelor’s degree in general home economics and a master’s degree in counseling both from the University of Arkansas, and a doctorate in higher education and education leadership from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Lora G. Weiss has been named senior vice president for research at Pennsylvania State University. She currently serves as a Georgia Tech Regents’ Researcher, interim senior vice president, and interim director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

Dr. Weiss is a magna cum laude graduate of Boston University where she majored in mathematics. She holds a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in acoustics from Pennsylvania State University.

Rhoda Bishop has been named vice president for compliance and risk at the University of Central Florida. She most recently served as vice president for risk, audit, and compliance at the University of Louisville.

Bishop holds an MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Nancy L. Siegert has been named chief human resources officer at Mississippi State University. She most recently served as human resources manager for the Clinical Practice Association at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Siegert holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in human resource development both from Towson University in Maryland.

Bernadette Stark has been named director of the Student Legal Services Office at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Stark holds a juris doctorate from the Cornell University Law School.

Cary Roberts Frith has been named chief of staff to the executive vice president and provost at Ohio University. She most recently served as interim dean of Ohio’s Honors Tutorial College.

Frith is a graduate of the Honors Tutorial College’s journalism program.

Emily Roediger has been named director of communications for the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech. She was the director of marketing and communications in the department of biomedical engineering and mechanics in Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering.

Roediger is a graduate of Texas A&M University where she majored in English. She holds a master’s degree in education from Georgia Southern University and a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Georgia.

Felicia Brown-Haywood has been named chief diversity officer at Millersville University in Pennsylvania. She previously served as chief diversity officer at Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg.

Dr. Brown-Haywood is a graduate of Cheyney University in Pennsylvania, where she majored in therapeutic recreation. She holds a master’s degree in theology/pastoral counseling from Virginia Union University, a master’s degree in counseling/student personnel from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, and a doctorate in adult education and lifelong learning from Pennsylvania State University.

Doona Gooden Payne has been named university vice president and general counsel at the University of Rochester in New York. She currently serves as university counsel and vice chancellor for legal affairs at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

Payne is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a juris doctorate from the University of Texas.