Eight Women Taking on New Administrative Roles in Higher Education

Irma Ramos was named vice chancellor for human resources of the North Orange County Community College District in California. She previously has served as vice president for human resources for the Mount San Jacinto Community College District and associate vice president of human resources for Long Beach City College.

Ramos is a graduate of DeVry University and holds an MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University.

Robyn S. Hadley was appointed associate vice chancellor and director of the John B. Ervin Scholars Program at Washington University in St. Louis. She has been serving as the founder and executive director of What’s After High School program in Burlington, North Carolina.

After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hadley was named a Rhodes Scholar and studied at Oxford University. She is the author of Within View, Within Reach: Navigating the College-Bound Journey (Samuel Stone Press, 2010).

Wendi J.W. Williams, a lecturer in earth sciences at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a faculty member at NorthWest Arkansas Community College, was named to the board of directors of the Triangle Coalition for STEM Education, a Washington-based nonprofit organization.

Dr. Williams is a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington. She holds a master’s degree from the University of California, Riverside and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas El Paso.

Sandi Altena was appointed director of the Franken Leadership Institute at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa. Since 2008, she has been the executive director of the Bridge transitional housing program in Orange City.

Altena is a graduate of Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. She holds a master’s degree in leadership and a doctorate in adult and higher education from the University of South Dakota.

Judith Kornberg was promoted to associate provost for academic affairs at Berkeley College in New Jersey. Dr. Kornberg joined Berkeley College in 2010 as dean of the School of Professional Studies. Earlier, she served as a dean of John Jay College of Criminal Justice and at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is the co-author of China in World Politics: Policies, Processes, Prospects (Lynne Rienner, 2004).

Dr. Kornberg is a graduate of Binghamton University of the State University of New York system. She holds a master’s degree in history from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Connecticut.

Melanie Hart was named director of the Community Legal Resource Network at the City University of New York School of Law. She was the interim CEO at Legal Information for Families Today (LIFT).

Hart is a graduate of Cornell University, the Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at the New School, and the University of Virginia School of Law.

Patricia Thomas was appointed vice dean for medical education at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She has been serving as associate dean for curriculum at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

Dr. Thomas is a graduate of Colby College in Maine and the Rutgers University Medical School.

Laura Strickler was named executive director for administrative planning at Princeton University. Since 2011, she has been the associate director for administration at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment at Princeton. She has been on the staff at the university since 1996.

Strickler is a graduate of William Smith College and holds a master’s degree in organizational dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania.