Colleges and Universities Announce the Appointments of Eleven Women to Administrative Positions

April Salas has been appointed interim executive director of the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She has been serving as the executive director of the Revers Center for Energy, Sustainability, and Innovation at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and will continue in that post. Prior to coming to Dartmouth in 2016, Salas served as director of the White House Quadrennial Energy Review Task Force Secretariat under President Obama.

A graduate of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, Salas went on to earn an MBA from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She holds a master’s degree in international affairs, conflict resolution, and civil society development from the American University in Paris and a master’s degree in international security and economics with a focus on energy poverty and development from L’Institut Catholique de Paris.

Alayna Hayes has been named assistant provost and senior director of the Career Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She will begin her new role on June 15. Hayes has been serving as the senior director of life design-diversity, equity, and inclusion at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Dr. Hayes earned a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Florida A&M University. She holds an educational doctorate from Johns Hopkins University.

Andrea N. Young will be the next vice president for finance and administration at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. She has been serving as interim president at Ripon College in Wisconsin. She formerly taught mathematics at the college.

Dr. Young is a graduate of Pennsylvania State Univerity. She earned a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Amanda Slaughter was appointed vice president for enrollment management at Bethel University in Mishawaka, Indiana. She most recently was associate vice president of university enrollment at Biola University in La Mirada, California.

Slaughter holds a bachelor’s degree from Biola University and a master’s degree from Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

Deborah Ward is the new vice provost for libraries and university librarian at the University of Missouri in Columbia. She has been serving in the role on an interim basis and has been a librarian at the university for 25 years.

Ward received a bachelor’s degree in German and a master’s degree in education from Eastern Kentucky University. She holds a master of library and information science degree from the University of Kentucky.

Makda Fessahaye has been appointed associate vice chancellor and chief human resources officer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has been serving as chief human resources officer for the City of Milwaukee.

Fessahaye is a graduate of Northwestern Univerity in Evanston, Illinois, where she majored in communication. She earned a juris doctorate at Marquette University Law School.

Meredith Weenick was named executive vice president and chief administrative officer at Harvard University. She has been serving as vice president for campus services since 2014. Earlier, Weenick was the chief financial officer for the city of Boston.

Weenick graduated from Harvard College in 1990 and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2002.

Samantha Jones is the new director of the Child Development and Family Studies Center at Mississippi State University. Jones has worked at the center for the past 12 years.

Jones holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in human development and family science from Mississippi State University.

Dana Ryan has been named interim vice president of academic and student affairs at Western Nevada College in Carson City. Dr. Ryan served as special assistant to the president at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada.

Dr. Ryan holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism, a master’s degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages, and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Nevada Reno.

Nicole Trufant will be vice president and chief financial officer at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. When she takes office on July 15, she will be the first woman to hold the post. Since 2007, Trufant has been serving as senior vice president of finance and administration at the University of New England. She is the incoming chair of the National Association of College and University Business Officers.

Trufant is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine, where she majored n accounting and sociology. She holds a master’s degree in management from New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire.

Frances Keene, assistant vice president and chief of staff for student affairs, will serve as interim vice president for student affairs at Virginia Tech, effective July 5. She began her career at Virginia Tech as a victim services adjudication coordinator in the Office of Judicial Affairs, now called Student Conduct. She went on to become assistant director and later director.

Dr. Keene is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree in counselor education from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in higher education from Virginia Tech.