Four Women Have Announced Their Retirements From High-Level University Positions

Janet Lindner, vice president for human resources and administration at Yale University, will retire at the end of the year after more than two decades of service to the university. Dr. Lindner came to Yale University in 1997 after serving as chief administrative officer for the City of New Haven. She became vice president for human resources in 2017.

Dr. Linder holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University. She earned a master of public administration degree from Baruch College of the City University of New York and a doctorate in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Valerie Gregory, associate dean of undergraduate admissions at the University of Virginia, has retired. She joined the staff at the admissions office in 1999. Previously, she was the principal of the Clark Elementary School in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Gregory is a graduate of Hampton University in Virginia, where she majored in early childhood education. She earned a master’s degree in educational administration and supervision from the Unversity of Virginia.

Professor of nutrition Nancy Cohen has retired after serving as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for the past 35 years. Professor Cohen served as head of the department of nutrition from 1998-2007 and 2009-15. She was also interim dean of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences on two occasions.

Professor Cohen earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and her doctorate from the University of California, Davis.

Madelyn F. Wessel, university counsel at Cornell University has announced plans to retire at the end of June. In 2017, she was the first woman to hold the position that also serves as secretary of the corporation and secretary of the Cornell University Board of Trustees. Wessel joined Cornell from Virginia Commonwealth University where she served as university counsel and senior assistant attorney general for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Wessel is a graduate of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. She earned a juris doctorate at Boston Univerity.