Joan M. Schenkel is the new associate vice president for research administration at Florida State University. Schenkel has over two decades of experience in higher education administration. Most recently, she served as associate vice president for research in the Office of Research and Technology Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where she worked for 20 years.
Schenkel received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland.
Kit Sawers is the incoming vice president and inaugural chief executive officer of The Dallas Office at Southern Methodist University in Texas. Her appointment marks a return to the university, where she previously served as director of the Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series and the SMU Athletic Forum. Sawers has been serving as president and CEO of the Klyde Warren Park. Earlier, she was chief development officer for the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and founder of Fay+Sawers Productions.
A graduate of the University of Virginia, Sawers earned her juris doctorate from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law.
Victoria Neason Wallace was named vice president for enrollment and dean of admission and financial aid at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. She comes to her new role from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where she has been serving as executive director of strategic initiatives within the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid. Before Colby, Neason Wallace was senior assistant director for student volunteers for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
An alumna of Washington University, Neason Wallace holds a master of education degree from Harvard University.
April Purvis has been appointed chief executive officer of the Clemson University Foundation. She served as the foundation’s director of gift management from 2015 to 2019 and as its legal counsel and chief operating officer from 2019 to 2023. For the past three years, Purvis has been executive secretary to Clemson’s board of trustees.
Purvis received her bachelor’s degree in political science and mass communications from Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina, and her juris doctorate from Florida Coastal School of Law.
Molly Propst was named chief human resources officer for the University of Vermont. Propst has over 20 years of experience in academic medicine, complex healthcare systems, and public-sector organizations. She has been serving as chief human resources officer at York Hospital in Maine. She has also served as chief human resources officer at Jefferson Healthcare in Washington and at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Propst holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and music from Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, and a master’s degree in psychology from Illinois State University.
Kathy Fahl has been selected to serve as interim vice president for student affairs at Ohio University. Fahl’s background includes more than two decades of experience in higher education and student affairs. Since 2022, she has served as Ohio University’s associate vice president and dean of students. Before that role, she was the assistant dean of students.
Fahl received her bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and her master of social work degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Roxanne Armbruster is the incoming vice president of talent and chief human resources officer at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. Most recently, Armbruster was chief of people and organizational effectiveness at Enterra Solutions, an artificial intelligence and data analytics firm. Earlier, she was chief human resources officer and assistant dean at Harvard Law School.
Armbruster earned a bachelor’s degree in leadership and a master’s degree in corporate and organizational communication from Northeastern University in Boston.
Christine Regis was named senior vice president and chief financial officer at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. Regis has over three decades of experience overseeing complex financial and administrative operations at private and public universities. She comes to her new role from Southern Methodist University, where she has served for nearly two decades as senior vice president for business and finance and chief financial officer.
Regis holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from New Mexico State University and an MBA from Western New Mexico University.