Gretchen Ritter has been named executive vice president and provost of the University of Minnesota. Her appointment is effective July 31.
Currently, Dr. Ritter is the vice president for civic engagement and education at Syracuse University in New York. Earlier, she had a stint as the university’s provost. Before her career at Syracuse, she held several academic leadership roles with Ohio State University, Cornell University in New York, and the University of Texas at Austin. Her scholarship focuses on the U.S. Constitution, democracy in America, and women’s citizenship.
A graduate of Cornell University, Dr. Ritter received her doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Preselfannie E. Whitfield McDaniels has been selected to serve as interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at Jackson State University in Mississippi.
A faculty member with the university since 1999, Dr. McDaniels has been serving as dean of the division of graduate studies. She is a full professor of English who specializes in twentieth-century American and African American literature, U.S. women writers, African American vernacular English, and service learning and portfolio pedagogies. She is the co-author of Meeting Points in Black/Africana Women’s Literature (African World Press, Inc., 2016).
Dr. McDaniels is an alumna of Jackson State University, where she majored in English. She holds a master’s degree in English from Mississippi College and a Ph.D. in English from Louisiana State University.
Ann Huff Stevens has been named provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Colorado Boulder. She will begin her new role on July 15.
Dr. Stevens comes to her new role from the University of Texas at Austin, where she serves as dean of the College of Liberal Arts. She also teaches as a professor of economics and holds the David Bruton, Jr. Regents Chair in Liberal Arts. As an economist, she researches the incidence and long-term effects of job loss, connections between economic shocks and health, and poverty and safety-net dynamics.
Dr. Stevens is a graduate of American University, where she double-majored in economics and political science. She holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Michigan.
Maggy Tomova has been appointed executive vice president for academic affairs and provost of Augusta University in Georgia. Her appointment is effective July 1.
Dr. Tomova has been serving as dean of the College of Sciences and vice provost for strategic initiatives within academic affairs at the University of Central Florida. Previously, she spent over a decade on the faculty at the University of Iowa, serving in roles such as chair of the department of mathematics and associate dean for natural, mathematical, and social sciences. In her scholarship, she focuses on low dimensional topology and knot theory.
Dr. Tomova received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and biochemistry from California Lutheran University and her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.