New Administrative Duties for Eight Women in American Higher Education

Mallory Sidarous was named the director of university housing at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. She has been serving in the role on an interim basis since July. She joined the staff of the university housing office in 2008.

Sidarous earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Eastern Illinois University in 2007 and an MBA from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville in 2011.

Qiana M. Watson was appointed associate vice president of labor and compliance at Montclair State University in New Jersey. She was deputy legal counsel and labor relations director at York College of the City University of New York.

Watson is a graduate of St. Joseph’s College in New York and the Temple University School of Law in Philadelphia.

Debra L. Fitzsimons is the new vice president for administration and finance at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Fitzsimons most recently served as vice chancellor of business services and chief financial officer and then as interim chancellor and chief executive officer at South Orange County Community College District in Mission Viejo, California. Earlier, Dr. Fitzsimons was the vice chancellor of administrative affairs and chief financial officer at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

Dr. Fitzsimons holds a bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University, a master’s degree from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, and an educational doctorate in administrative policy studies from the University of Pittsburgh.

Laura Rugless has been named associate vice president for the office of institutional equity and Title IX coordinator at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She will begin her new duties on January 2. She has been serving as executive director of equity and access services and Title IX coordinator at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Rugless, an Army veteran, is a graduate of the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Judith Brown Clarke was appointed chief diversity officer at Stony Brook University in New York. She will begin her new job in February. Dr. Clarke has been serving as diversity director for the Bio-Computational Evolution in Action Consortium (BEACON) Science and Technology Center at Michigan State University.

Dr. Clarke is a graduate of Michigan State University, where she majored in audiology & speech science. She earned a master’s degree in educational administration from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in public policy and administration from Western Michigan University. Dr. Clarke won a silver medal in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1984 Olympic Games.

Virginia Tomlinson will begin her role as associate vice president and chief information officer at Central Washington University on January 2. Since 2014, Tomlinson has served as the chief technology officer at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon.

Earlier in her career, Tomlinson was the CIO at Reinhardt University, in Waleska, Georgia, and director of Information Technology Services at Oglethorpe University, in Atlanta.

Leslie Darling has been appointed executive vice president and general counsel of the Art Institute of Chicago. She most recently served as the chief executive officer of the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, where she oversaw the strategic planning and implementation of innovative and complex infrastructure projects for the City of Chicago.

Darling holds a bachelor’s degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois and a law degree from DePaul University in Chicago.

Cheryl Pollard has been named the associate vice president for enrollment management at Jackson State University in Mississippi. She was director of undergraduate admission at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. Earlier, she was interim associate vice chancellor for enrollment management.

Pollard is a graduate of Winston-Salem State Univerity, where she majored in education. She holds a master’s degree in adult and continuing education administration from North Carolina A&T State University.