Six Women Who Have Been Appointed to Dean Positions at Universities

Melanie Hatch was appointed dean of the College of Art and Sciences at Albany State University in Georgia. The appointment is effective July 1. Dr. Hatch has been serving as associate provost at the university. She previously served as the dean of engineering and business at Gannon University in Eire Pennsylvania, chancellor of Pennsylvania State University Dubois, and provost-vice president for academic affairs at Middle Georgia State University.

Dr. Hatch is a graduate of Indiana State University where she majored in mathematics. She holds a master’s degree in management science from the University of Dayton in Ohio and a Ph.D. in operations research from Virginia Tech.

Nancy Coleman will be the next dean of the Division of Continuing Education at Harvard University. Dr. Coleman comes to Harvard from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she had been associate provost and founding director of strategic growth initiatives. She is president-elect of the University Professional Continuing Education Association.

Dr. Coleman is a graduate of Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. She holds an MBA from Boston University and a doctorate in human and organizational learning from George Washington University.

Kristin Gilger was named interim dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. She has been serving as associate dean and is the Reynolds Professor in Business Journalism. She joined the faculty at the university in 2002.

Professor Gilger earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from the University of Nebraska.

Jessica Harpole was appointed interim vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Mississippi University for Women. Since 2013, she has been the director of student life at the university.

Harpole holds a master’s degree in higher education administration from Florida State University and a bachelor’s degree in social science from Mississippi University for Women.

Susan Ettner, professor in the David Geffen School of Medicine and the Fielding School of Public Health, and an associate dean in the Graduate Division at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been named interim dean of graduate education. She will begin her term on August 1.

Professor Ettner earned bachelor’s degrees in mathematics/economics and German from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kavita Bala, professor and chair of computer science, has been named dean of the Faculty of Computing and Information Science at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She joined the faculty in 2002.

Professor Bala has a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, India. She earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.