Two Women Who Have Been Appointed to Provost Positions in Higher Education

Rosa Rivera-Hainaj has been selected as provost at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. She plans to begin her new duties at McDaniel College in July.

Dr. Rivera-Hainaj has been serving as associate vice president of academic affairs at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. Earlier, she served as dean of science and mathematics at Lorain County Community College in Ohio and was previously an associate professor of chemistry, interim chair of the biology and chemistry department, and director of the Center for Science and Math Education at Purdue University North Central in Westville, Indiana.

“I am so excited to be joining the McDaniel family this summer,” said Dr. Rivera-Hainaj. “McDaniel is an institution that values holistic, deep learning, engaging students in a rigorous education while developing them into steadfast citizens. I appreciate the strengths, opportunities, and challenges McDaniel presents as it moves to advance its national standing, grow enrollment, and ensure sustainability.”

Dr. Rivera-Hainaj holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez. She earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Catherine Koshland was named interim executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of California, Berkeley, effective July 1. She will serve while a nationwide search is conducted for an individual to hold the position on a permanent basis.

Dr. Koshland currently serves as vice chancellor for undergraduate education at the university. She first joined the Berkeley faculty in 1984 and is the Wood-Calvert Professor in Engineering and a professor of environmental health sciences at Berkeley Public Health. Dr. Koshland has held senior leadership roles since the 2002-03 academic year, when she was chair of the  Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate.

In accepting the interim position, Dr. Koshland said that “I am very much someone who is not always looking for the next bright, shiny object, but for how to take lessons learned and leverage them into better experiences for everyone, whether it means the flexibility to work from home or students studying part of the time remotely. We will look at different combinations going forward for the right set of programs and options, new ways of communicating on campus that, in the long term, will increase accessibility and, ultimately, our community’s sense of belonging.”

Professor Koshland is a graduate of Haverford College in Pennsylvania, where she majored in fine arts. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.