Ten Women Taking on New Administrative Duties at Colleges and Universities

Suneetha Vaitheswaran is the inaugural University Data Officer at Princeton University in New Jersey. The University Data Officer is the senior university executive responsible for supporting the effective use of administrative data at Princeton. Vaitheswaran is the former executive director of analytics and business information solutions at the University of Chicago.

Vaitheswaran holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Ana Hunt was promoted to associate provost at the University of Arkansas Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock. She joined Pulaski Tech in 2019 as registrar. Earlier, she was registrar at National Park College in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Dr. Hunt is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Monticello. She holds a master’s degree in college student personnel from Arkansas Tech and a doctorate in educational leadership and management from Capella University.

Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, has appointed Tera Jay Cuny-Baker as director of athletics. Cuny-Baker had been a teacher and basketball coach for 10 years.

Cuny-Baker holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in education from Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, South Dakota. She is currently pursuing a doctorate.

Bett Schumacher is the new chief of staff and secretary of the college at Mount Holyoke College in South Haley, Massachusetts. She was chief of staff and secretary of the board of trustees at Amherst College in Massachusetts from 2017 to 2022. Earlier, Dr. Schumacher was chief of staff to the president at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.

Dr. Schumacher is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in art history. She holds a Ph.D. in the history of art from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Lydia G. Sermons has been selected to serve as vice president of public relations and communications at Spelman College in Atlanta. She most recently served as vice president of strategic positioning and alignment for Population Action International, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for the rights of women and girls abroad.

Sermons is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia. She holds a master’s degree in communication from American University in Washington, D.C.

Ann Todd was appointed deputy Title IX coordinator at Yeshiva University in New York City. Since August 2014, Todd has worked as the Title IX and Clery Act investigator and senior consultant at D. Staffords & Associates, a consulting firm that specializes in campus safety and security. Earlier, she was associate director of human resources at Davidson College in North Carolina.

Todd is a graduate of Davidson College, where she majored in psychology. She earned a juris doctorate at the University of Nebraska.

Katrina Poe is the new executive director of the student health center at Mississippi State University. Dr. Poe joined came to the university in 2018 as a staff physician at the health center.

Dr. Poe is a graduate of Mississippi State University. She earned her medical doctorate at the University of Mississippi.

Mary E. Burke is the new vice president for institutional advancement at Temple University in Philadelphia. Most recently, Burke served as vice president for the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Foundation in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Earlier, she was associate vice president for university development at the University of Maryland.

Burke is a graduate of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, where she majored in English and political science. She earned an MBA from Boston University.

Alison Gilchrest has been appointed as the new director of Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. Gilchrest joined the institute in January 2020 as its inaugural director of applied research and outreach. Earlier, she worked for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Gilchrest received a bachelor’s degree in the history of art from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree in museum information systems from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Elizabeth Horton has been promoted to director of the Office of Graduate Services at South Carolina State University. She has served as the administrative assistant in the department of education for the last seven years. Horton joined the university’s staff in 2000 as the data entry specialist in the School of Graduate Studies.

Horton received a bachelor’s degree in organizational management from Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and a master’s degree in counseling education from South Carolina State University.