New Administrative Appointments for Eight Women in Academia

Sandra Guzmán has been appointed vice president of student affairs at Hartnell College in Salinas, California. With over 25 years of experience in higher education and community-based organizations, she most recently served as dean of student engagement and completion at American River College in Sacramento, California. Earlier, she held several leadership roles with Sacramento City College.

Guzmán holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University, Chico and a master’s degree in counseling psychology from the University of San Francisco. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in leadership studies from the University of the Cumberlands in Kentucky.

Kelly Ball has been appointed associate vice president for access and enrollment and director of admissions at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She comes to her new role from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where she was director of recruitment and strategic initiatives. Earlier, she held leadership roles with the University of Delaware and Pennsylvania State University.

Ball received her bachelor’s degree in advertising and her master’s degree in higher education from Penn State.

Leigh N. Whitaker has been named vice president for government and community affairs at the University of Pennsylvania. Her appointment marks a return to the Ivy League university, where she previously served as director of city relations. More recently, she was principal at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, where she led the firm’s Philadelphia government relations practice.

Whitaker earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Clark Atlanta University in Georgia and her juris doctorate from Temple University in Philadelphia.

Angie Zirschky has been named compliance director and ADA/504 coordinator at Boise State University. A staff member at Boise State for nearly two decades, she has served in various human resources positions throughout her long tenure. Most recently, she was the university’s policy director.

Zirschky received her bachelor’s degree in business management and her master of public administration degree from Boise State. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in public policy and administration at the university.

Brandi Tatum-Fedrick will serve as acting vice president of university advancement in addition to her role as director of alumni affairs at Florida A&M University. In her new role, Dr. Tatum-Fedrick he will be responsible for developing and executing a comprehensive fundraising strategy to secure financial support, including cultivating relationships with major donors, overseeing fundraising campaigns, and managing the development team.

Dr. Tatum-Fedrick holds both a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in public administration from FAMU. She received her doctorate from Florida State University.

Ayanna Tweedy has been selected to serve as interim athletic director at Bakersfield College in California. She most recently served as director of athletics at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana. Before Rose-Hulman, she was associate director of athletics and campus wellness, as well as the senior woman administrator at Wabash College in Indiana.

A graduate of Bowie State University in Maryland, Tweedy holds a master’s degree in higher education and administration from Southern New Hampshire University.

Amy Owens is the new executive director of the Tennessee Education Research Alliance, a research-practice partnership between the Tennessee Department of Education and Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development. Before her new role, she led research studies regarding educational policy with the Tennessee State Board of Education and the Tennessee Department of Education.

Dr. Owens is a graduate of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she majored in history. She holds two master’s degrees from Vanderbilt University and a Ph.D. in public policy and administration from Tennessee State University.

Kimberly Lewis has been named executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She comes to Rutgers from Louisiana State University, where she also served as chief administrative officer. Earlier, she was the chief executive officer for the state of Louisiana’s Department of Revenue, where she oversaw $10 billion in state tax revenue.

Lewis earned her juris doctorate from Louisiana State University.

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