Ten Women Taking on New Administrative Duties in Higher Education

Melody Tankersley is the new associate provost for academic affairs at Kent State University in Ohio. Dr. Tankersley has worked at Kent State for the past 20 years and is a professor of special education in the College of Education, Health, and Human Services.

Dr. Tankersley holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. She holds a doctorate in special education from the University of Virginia.

Tonjanita Johnson was appointed vice president for communications and marketing for the University of Tennessee system. She has been serving as chief deputy to the president of Stony Brook University, a campus of the State University of New York system. Previously, she was associate vice president for marketing and communications at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. She will begin her new role on June 24.

Dr. Johnson holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Alabama. She earned a doctorate in urban higher education from Jackson State University in Mississippi.

Lysa Salsbury was named director of the Women’s Center at the University of Idaho. She has worked at the center since 2005.

Salsbury grew up in southwest England. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Portuguese and came to the United States in 1993 and worked as a translation consultant. She holds a master’s degree in adult/organizational learning and leadership from the University of Idaho.

Ashley Schumaker was appointed chief of staff and special assistant to the president of West Virginia State University. She has been serving as senior director of board and public relations for the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.

Schumaker is a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. She earned a master’s degree in communication studies from West Virginia University.

Jacqueline Edmondson was promoted to associate vice president and associate dean for undergraduate education at Pennsylvania State University. She was associate dean for undergraduate and graduate studies. She also holds a position as professor of curriculum and instruction. She is the author of America Reads: A Critical Policy Analysis (International Reading Association 2000), Prairie Town: Redefining Rural Life in an Age of Globalizaiton (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003) and Understanding and Applying Critical Policy Study: Reading Educators Advocating for Change (International Reading Association, 2004).

Dr. Edmondson holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, all from Pennsylvania State University.

Tina Kunzer-Murphy was appointed interim director of athletics at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. She has been serving as director of alumni sponsorship and development for the UNLV alumni relations department. She is the former executive director of the Las Vegas Bowl.

Kunzer-Murphy holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

Joan C. Dunbar was named associate vice president of technology commercialization at Wayne State University in Detroit. She has been serving in the post on an interim basis since last year. She has been on the faculty at the university since 1987.

Dr. Dunbar holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Sydney in Australia.

Martha Escutia was appointed vice president for government relations at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She served in the California State Assembly from 1992 to 1998 and in the California State Senate from 1998 to 2006. After leaving the legislature, she founded a law and consulting firm.

Escutia is a graduate of the University of Southern California and the Georgetown University Law Center.

On July 1, Sarah Case-Price will become director of the Children’s Center for Communication and Development at the University of Southern Mississippi. She is currently the assistant director and started working at the center a dozen years ago while a student at the university.

The center was established in 1974 within the university’s department of speech and hearing sciences.

Martha Warren Bidez was appointed director of the Office of eLearning and Professional Studies at the University of Alabama Birmingham. She is a professor of biomedical engineering at the university.

Dr. Bidez is a graduate of Auburn University and holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Alabama Birmingham.