Three Women Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Provost Positions

Susan Ganter has been appointed provost and executive vice president at the University of Texas Permian Basin in Odessa. When she joins the administration this coming summer, she will lead the university’s five colleges, which have upwards of 70 undergraduate and graduate degree programs and certificates.

The University of Texas Permian Basin enrolls nearly 4,500 undergraduate students and slightly more than 1,000 graduate students according to the latest statistics furnished by the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up 59 percent of the student body.

“I’m excited to be here. I just want to say how thrilled I am and honored to be part of this great institution and really ready to come and hit the ground running,” Dr. Ganter said. “The strategic plan that has been put into place really plays to my strengths and my beliefs about the importance of the contributions of the academic community to the broader region. I’m very excited to work on developing partnerships with local industry and really making the university become an even more vibrant part of contributing to the contributions that are happening already in the region.”

Dr. Ganter is a professor of mathematics and dean for the College of Arts and Sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. Earlier in her career, she taught at Clemson University in South Carolina and Virginia Tech.

Dr. Ganter grew up in the Houston area near the Johnson Space Center. Her father was an engineer for the Houston Ship Channel. She earned bachelor’s degrees in music and mathematics from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Dr. Ganter holds a master’s degree in applied mathematics and a doctorate in educational leadership with a focus in mathematics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Donna Bradley is the new provost at Lincoln College in Lincoln, Illinois. Dr. Bradley has served as vice president for academic affairs at Lincoln College since January 2021.

Lincoln College enrolls just under 1,000 undergraduate students and about 30 graduate students according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up 57 percent of the undergraduate student body.

Dr. Bradley was the first African American student to attend St. Mary’s Episcopal School in Memphis, Tennessee. As a young girl in a class of just 42 students, she began her schooling in August 1968, four months after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. “For many of the wealthy students, the maids, butlers, and gardeners were the only African American people they knew. Many of the girls didn’t want to include me or their parents wouldn’t allow them to invite me over,” recalled Bradley. Now the school has an award named in her honor.

Dr. Bradley holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brown University, a master’s degree in criminal justice from Columbia College, a juris doctorate from Howard University School of Law, and a doctorate degree in public safety and criminal justice from Capella University.

Kathy Littles was named provost at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. She is returning to the institute where she had worked from 2006 to 2019.

According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education, the California Institute of Integral Studies enrolls less than 100 undergraduate students, mostly women. There are more than 1,400 graduate students.

Dr. Littles first came to CIIS in 2006 as an adjunct associate professor in the School of Undergraduate Studies. Four years later she assumed the position of director of the transformative inquiry department, and four years after that she became director of online learning. In 2017, Dr. Littles was appointed dean of the School of Consciousness and Transformation. In 2019, she left the institute to become associate provost for faculty affairs and senior diversity officer at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California.

Dr. Littles is a graduate of St. Mary’s College, where she majored in anthropology and art. She holds a master’s degree in anthropology from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in cultural studies from the University of California, Davis.