Alexia Hudson-Ward has been elected vice president/president-elect of the Association of College and Research Libraries. Her appointment begins on July 1, 2025, followed by a one-year term as president beginning July 1, 2026.
For the past five years, Dr. Hudson-Ward has served as the associate director for research and learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries. Prior to her current role, she was the Azariah Smith Root Director of Libraries at Oberlin College in Ohio. Earlier, she served as the associate librarian for reference and instruction at Pennsylvania State University Abington.
Dr. Hudson-Ward is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, where she double-majored in English and African American studies. She holds a master of library and information science degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. in the same discipline from Simmons University in Boston.
Natalia S. Rost, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, has been elected the thirty-ninth president of the American Academy of Neurology.
In addition to her academic appointment at Harvard, Dr. Rost is the C. Miller Endowed Chair in Stroke Research and stroke division chief at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her medical expertise is in vascular neurology, neuroimaging of cerebrovascular disease, genetics and genomics of stroke, and big-data science applications to personalized clinical outcome prediction in acute stroke.
Dr. Rost earned her medical degree from Boston University and her master of public health degree from Harvard.
Ale Kennedy has been appointed chair-elect of the national board of directors for the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). Her role begins on July 1, following a one-year term as chair of the board in 2026-2027.
With over 25 years of higher education experience, Dr. Kennedy is the associate vice president and chief human resources officer for Clemson University in South Carolina. Before joining the Clemson administration in 2016, she was interim associate vice president for human resources at Georgia Southern University.
An alumna of Clemson, Dr. Kennedy holds a doctorate in education from Georgia Southern University.