A Pair of Women Appointed to University Provost Positions

Lesleigh Cushing, Murray W. and Mildred K. Finard Professor in Jewish studies and professor of religion at Colgate Univerity in Hamilton, New York, has been named provost and dean of the faculty at the highly rated university.

Dr. Cushing joined the faculty at Colgate in 2002. She is the co-author of The Bible in the American Short Story (Bloomsbury Academc, 2017) and the author of Sustaining Fictions: Midrash, Intertextuality, Translation and the Literary Afterlife of the Hebrew Bible (T&T Clark, 2008).

Dr. Cushing earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature and religious studies from McGill University in Montreal. She holds a master of theological studies degree from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. in religion and literature from Boston University.

Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts announced the appointment of Patricia A. Marshall as the institution’s next provost and vice president for academic affairs. She will take office in July.

Dr. Marshall has served as deputy commissioner for academic affairs and student success at the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education since 2015. Earlier, Dr. Marshall served as the associate vice president for academic affairs at Worcester State University in Massachusetts. “I am excited to join Fitchburg State University, whose objectives of being a student-ready campus with an emphasis on social justice truly align with the work I have been doing with the Department of Higher Education,” Dr. Marshall said.

Dr. Marshall holds a bachelor’s degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and a Ph.D. in Hispanic studies from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.