New Administrative Roles for Seven Women in Higher Education

Ritu Kalra has been promoted to vice president for finance and chief financial officer at Harvard University. She has been serving as assistant vice president of finance and treasury and special projects adviser. Before joining the university, Kalra spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs, where she held several progressive roles culminating in managing director.

Kaira holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in journalism from New York University.

Margaret Dismond Martin is the new chief of staff for the president of Virginia Union University in Richmond. She was executive assistant to the president for strategic initiatives, assistant dean in the School of Liberal Arts and Education, and an assistant professor of English at Hampton University in Virginia.

Martin earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature at Spelman College in Atlanta. She holds a master’s degree in English literature from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and a master’s degree in higher education leadership at George Washington University.

Shannon Means is the new vice provost for strategy and innovation at the University of South Carolina. She was the director of policy and data analysis at the University of Kentucky. Earlier, she was assistant director at the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at Eastern Kentucky University from 2006 to 2013.

Means holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Morehead State University in Kentucky. She earned a master of public administration degree from Eastern Kentucky University.

Reinell Thomas-Myers has been promoted to director of the Minority Teacher Recruitment Program at South Carolina State University.  She has served as program manager for the South Carolina Program for the Recruitment and Retention of Minority Teachers at the university since 2009.

Thomas-Myers holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from South Carolina State University and a master’s degree in technology education from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Clear Moore was appointed director of the Student Success Center at the Mississippi University for Women. Most recently, she served as the director for academic affairs at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science.

Dr. Clear holds a bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing and a master’s degree in secondary English education from Louisiana State University. She earned a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Alisia Kirkwood was named associate vice president of the Long Beach Community College District in California, where she will oversee the Pacific Coast Campus. Since 2018, she has seen serving as dean of student affairs for the Long Beach Community College District. Earlier, Dr. Kirkwood was interim dean for student affairs at Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California.

Dr. Kirkwood earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California, Riverside. She received a master’s degree in education and a doctorate in community college leadership from California State University, Fullerton.

Beth Goetz will be the interim director of athletics at the University of Iowa, effective August 2. She has been serving as deputy director of athletics and chief operating officer. Goetz joined the Iowa athletics staff in September 2022 from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where she served as director of athletics for four years.

Goetz is a graduate of Clemson University, where she was a member of the soccer team. She earned a master’s degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.