New Administrative Positions for Eight Women at Universities

Raquel Regalado is the new director of the Ethical Leadership Institute at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Florida. In 2020 she became the first Miami-born Hispanic woman elected to the Miami-Dade County Commission. She is a former member of the Miami-Dade County School Board and ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Miami in 2016.

Regalado is a graduate of Florida International University. She earned a juris doctorate at the College of Law at St. Thomas University.

Desireé Honoré Thomas has been appointed associate vice president and senior administrative operations officer for the Southern University System. Before joining the Southern University System, Thomas served as the assistant commissioner of statewide services for the Louisiana Division of Administration.

Thomas holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Louisiana State University and an MBA from Louisiana State University at Shreveport.

Jessica Martucci has been named curator of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been serving as the associate director of undergraduate studies in the history and sociology of science department at the university. Dr. Martucci is the author of Back to the Breast: Natural Motherhood and Breastfeeding in America (University of Chicago Press, 2015).

Dr. Martucci holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and biology from Oberlin College in Ohio. She earned a master of bioethics degree and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Norma Guerra Gaier will serve as associate vice chancellor for career development and education and will lead the new Center for Career Engagement at Washington University in St. Louis, effective September 20. She has been serving as the inaugural executive director of Texas Career Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin.

Gaier holds a bachelor’s degree in English and communication and a master’s degree in communication studies from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas.

Joy Jefferson was promoted to chief of staff to the president of Hampton University in Virginia. She had been serving as vice president and executive assistant to the president. Earlier she held the roles of vice president for external relations, associate vice president for development, and director of university relations at the university.

Jefferson is a 1986 graduate of Hampton University with a bachelor’s degree in mass media arts.

Melisa López Franzen is the new executive director of government and community relations at the University of Minnesota. She is the president of NewPublica, a multicultural communications consulting firm she co-founded, as well as an adjunct professor in the university’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. López Franzen served for 10 years in the Minnesota State Senate.

López Franzen holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, a master’s dgree from the University of Minnesota, and a juris doctorate from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Karen M. Carty has been named the director of athletics at the University of the Virgin Islands. She is the first woman to hold the position in the university’s 61-year history. She was assistant commissioner for strategic communications at the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

Dr. Carty graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in general business with an emphasis in marketing from Norfolk State University in Virginia, where she played tennis. She holds a doctorate in higher education administration from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.

Dee Dee Anderson was appointed vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Dr. Anderson was special advisor to the president and vice president for student affairs at the University of Southern Mississippi. Earlier, Dr. Anderson worked at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga serving in multiple leadership positions including interim vice chancellor of student affairs.

Dr. Anderson holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in elementary education, a master’s degree in industrial and organizational psychology, and a doctorate in education leadership from Louisiana Tech University.