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

Marcy Averill is the inaugural Indigenous communities liaison in the Center for Community and Civic Engagement at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Averill comes to Carleton from the Office of Education Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, where she worked with medical students, researchers, and administration on Native issues.

Averill is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, where she majored in electrical engineering. She holds a master of public health degree from North Dakota State University.

Rachel Fine has been named executive director of the Yale Schwarzman Center, the university’s first-ever center for student life and the arts. Fine was the executive director and CEO of the Los Angeles-based Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

Fine, who is also a concert pianist, attended the Music Academy of the West and the Eastman School of Music. She is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine.

Carmen W. Harper was appointed executive director of alumni affairs at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. She is the former director of alumni engagement and annual giving at the Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, North Carolina.

Harper earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina. She holds an MBA with a concentration in nonprofit leadership from Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.

Jaime Hunt is the new vice president for strategic communications and chief marketing officer at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She was vice president for university communications and chief marketing and communications officer at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Earlier, she was vice chancellor of strategic communications and chief marketing and communications officer at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina.

Hunt is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, where she majored in journalism. She holds a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from West Virginia University.

Kelli Sinclair has joined Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Illinois, as vice president for student services. She was the executive dean for student success and retention at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove. Earlier, she served as associate dean of enrollment management at Elgin Community College and associate director of university admissions at Aurora University in Illinois.

Sinclair holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in counseling with a higher education emphasis, both from Northern Illinois University.

Kari Kammel was promoted to director of the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection at Michigan State University. She has served as assistant director for the past seven years. Earlier, she was deputy chief of party for country operations in Iraq for the International Human Rights Law Institute.

Kammel is a graduate of the University of Chicago. She earned a master’s degree in political science from the American University in Cairo and a juris doctorate at DePaul University in Chicago.

Monique Carroll was appointed director of intercollegiate athletics at Chicago State University. Most recently, Dr. Carroll served as director of intercollegiate athletics at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas.

Dr. Carroll is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff where she majored in secondary health and physical education. She holds a master’s degree in sports management from the United States Sports Academy in Alabama and a doctorate in education with an emphasis on sports management from North Central University in Minneapolis.

Carly Leatherwood will serve as interim chief of staff to the president of Ohio University for the duration of the academic year. Leatherwood most recently served as the associate vice president of communications, where she has led media relations and internal communications for the university since 2016.

Leatherwood holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. She is completing work on an MBA at the university’s business school.

Cynthia Schmersal has been named vice president of mission and ministry at Creighton University, effective September 30. She is currently vice president for mission and ministry at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri.

Schmersal earned a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in secondary education, from Xavier University. She holds a master’s degree in ministry from Creighton University and a master’s degree in management from Rockhurst University. She is completing work on an educational doctorate at Rockhurst University.

Lisa Lee has joined Rice University in Houston, Texas, as director of internal audit. Lee most recently served as audit director for the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Earlier, she spent 12 years on the staff at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Lee earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Houston and a master’s degree in dispute resolution from Southern Methodist University.

Anne Houston will be the next director of libraries at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, effective October 3. She has served as dean of libraries at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, since 2017.

Houston holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Virginia. She earned a master’s degree in English literature from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and a master of library and information sciences degree from the University of Michigan.