New Administrative Posts for 11 Women in Higher Education

Joan Gallagher was appointed vice president of university advancement at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. She has taught at the university for six years and served as associate dean of the College of Adult and Professional Studies.

Dr. Gallagher holds a master’s degree from Boston University and a doctorate from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Susan S. Williams was named vice dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio State University. Since 2009 she has been serving as a vice provost and earlier was director of graduate studies at the university. A professor of English, Dr. Williams is the author of Confounding Images: Photography and Portraiture in Antebellum American Fiction (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997) and Reclaiming Authorship: Literary Women in America, 1850-1900 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006).

Dr. Williams holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. from Yale University.

Jean Rawlings Sumner is the inaugural associate dean for rural health at the Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Georgia. She has been serving as president and medical director for the Georgia Composite Medical Board.

Dr. Sumner was a member of the inaugural graduating class of the Mercer University School of Medicine in 1986. Since completing her residency, she has been practicing internal medicine in Johnson County.

Bess Marcus was named senior associate dean for public health at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Since 2011, she has been serving as a professor and chair of the department of family and preventive medicine at the university. Earlier, she taught at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Professor Marcus is a magna cum laude graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Auburn University in Alabama.

Leslie Chambers Strohm was appointed general counsel and vice president for strategy at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. She was vice chancellor and general counsel at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Strohm is a graduate of DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and the University of Michigan Law School.

Theresa Mendoza was named interim vice president of university advancement at San Jose State University in California. She has been serving as senior adviser for campus advancement in the chancellor’s office of the California State University System.

Mendoza earned a bachelor’s degree in international affairs and economics from George Washington University and a master’s degree in organizational communication from Arizona State University.

Jyl R. Shaffer was named Title IX coordinator at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. She was the primary Title IX case investigator at the University of Houston. Earlier, she was assistant dean of students for sexual assault prevention and response at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

Shaffer is a graduate of Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where she double majored in history and secondary education. She holds a master’s degree in conflict management from Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Patricia R. DeLucia was promoted to associate vice president for research for faculty affairs at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. She was a faculty fellow in the university’s Office of Vice President for Research and is also a professor of psychology. She has been on the faculty at the university since 1991.

Dr. DeLucia is a graduate of Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Columbia University.

Nancy R. Grden was named the inaugural director of the Strome Entrepreneurial Center at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She will take on her new duties in January. She is the former chair of the Executive Advisory Council for the university’s College of Business.

Grden is a graduate of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where she majored in economics. She holds a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from the University of South Carolina.

Dorianne Johnson was appointed associate athletics director and senior women’s administrator at Alcorn State University in Mississippi. She was the recruiting coordinator and the assistant coach for women’s basketball at Alabama A&M University.

Johnson is a graduate of the University of Mississippi, where she majored in journalism and public relations. She holds a master’s degree in human development from Alabama A&M University.

Shirley A. Weis was named special adviser to the president of Arizona State University for health care and business leadership. She is vice president and chief administrative officer emerita at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Weis is a magna cum laude graduate of Michigan State University, where she majored in nursing. She holds a master’s degree in management from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.