New Administrative Posts for Five Women in Higher Education

Leslie Parkins was named assistant director of the Office of Civic Engagement at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She was the senior program officer for service learning at the Carolina Center for Public Service at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Dr. Parkins is a graduate of the University of South Florida in Tampa. She holds a master’s degree in college student counseling from Bowling Green State University in Ohio and a doctorate in higher education administration from North Carolina State University.

Brenda van Gelder was promoted to executive director of information policy and strategic management in the Division of Information Technology at Virginia Tech. She had been serving as executive director of converged technologies for security, safety, and resilience at the university. She has been on the university’s staff for 28 years.

Van Gelder holds an MBA from Virginia Tech.

Aramis Watson is the new associate director for residence life at the University of Kansas. She has held student housing posts at Ohio State University and the University of Utah.

Watson is a graduate of the University of Kansas and holds a master’s degree from Arizona State University.

Michaela Willis was appointed vice president of the Division of Student Affairs at South Dakota State University, effective July 22. Since 2009, she has served as vice president for enrollment management and student affairs at Peru State College in Nebraska.

Dr. Willis earned bachelor’s and master’s degree from Doane College in Crete, Nebraska. She holds Ph.D. in educational studies from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Judy Jackson was named diversity and inclusion officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was vice president for institutional diversity and an associate professor of education at the University of Kentucky. Earlier in her career, she was on the staff at MIT serving in several roles including director of the Office of Minority Education, associate dean of undergraduate education and student affairs, and special adviser to the provost on faculty diversity.

Dr. Jackson is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She holds a master’s degree from Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and an educational doctorate from Harvard University.