Six Women Who Have Been Appointed to New Administrative Posts in Higher Education

Karen Craddock is the inaugural Tribal Community Member in Residence at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. In this role, she will provide cultural, academic, and psycho-social support and mentoring for Native American and Indigenous students on campus.

Dr. Crddock is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree in human development and psychology from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in applied developmental psychology from Tufts University in Massachusetts.

Crate Herbert has been named vice president of institutional advancement at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. Herbert has been working at Harvard University since 2007. For the past four years, she has been executive director of development for the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Herbert holds a bachelor’s degree in music and philosophy from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. She earned a master’s degree in music from the University of Texas at Austin.

Sara Thorndike was appointed senior vice president for finance and business at Pennsylvania State University. She was vice chancellor for administration and finance and chief financial officer at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. Dr. Thorndike previously served as senior associate vice chancellor for business affairs, chief financial officer, and controller at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Dr. Thorndike holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio. She earned an MBA from Ohio State University and a doctoral degree in higher education leadership from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Julia Yager will be the next vice president for college relations and communications at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She will begin her new job on January 1. She has been serving as senior vice president for marketing, sales, and distribution for Public Radio International in Minneapolis.

Yager is a graduate of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where she majored in public policy. She holds an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Cathy Light was named secretary to the board of trustees at the California Institute of Technology, effective January 4, 2021. Since 2018, she has been secretary of the corporation and advisor to the president at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Light earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from Carlow University in Pittsburgh. She holds a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.

Emilly Borthwick-Wong was appointed executive director of University Advising at the University of Nevada, Reno. Since March she has served as interim director. She joined the staff at the university in 2019 as the director of the Exploratory and Pre-Professional Advising Center.

Dr. Borthwick-Wong is a graduate of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, where she majored in religion. She holds a master’s degree in applied communication and an educational doctorate from Northern Arizona University.