Three American Educational Institutions Name Women to Provost Positions

Lourdes María Alvarez is the new provost and vice president for academic affairs at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the university enrolls more than 3,100 students, a majority of whom are graduate students. Women make up 68 percent of the undergraduate student body. Dr. Alvarez was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. Earlier, Dr. Alvarez served as professor, chair, and program director for 10 years at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Alvarez is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in neurobiology. She holds a master’s degree in Spanish from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in Spanish literature from Yale University.

Mary L. Coffey was named provost and dean of faculty at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. The colleges enroll just over 2,200 students. Women make up 51 percent of the student body. Dr. Coffey has been serving as the senior associate dean at Pomona College in Claremont, California. She was also a tenured member of the faculty in Pomona’s department of romance languages and literature. Dr. Coffey is recognized for her expertise on 19th- and early-20th-century Spanish literature and culture.

Dr. Coffey received a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a master’s degree in comparative literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She is the co-editor of Imagined Truths: Realism in Modern Spanish Literature and Culture (University of Toronto Press, 2019).

Margaret Fitzgerald was appointed interim provost at North Dakota State University. She is the dean of the university’s College of Human Sciences and Education. Dr. Fitzgerald is a professor in the department of health, nutrition, and exercise sciences at the university. Professor Fitzgerald has served on the university’s faculty for nearly 30 years.

Dr. Fitzgerald is a graduate of North Dakota State University. She earned a master’s degree in family resources and human development from Arizona State University and a Ph.D. in human development and family studies from Iowa State University.