A Dozen Women With New Administrative Positions in Higher Education

Denise Young was named executive director of the Bell Museum and Planetarium at the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota. She has been serving as director of education and planning for the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Young holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, a master’s degree in school administration, and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, all from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Joeleen Akin was appointed associate athletics director for student-athlete development and senior woman administrator at the Georgia Institute of technology in Atlanta. She was associate dean for athletics and student activities at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. She has served on the athletics staff at Agnes Scott College for 13 years.

Akin holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kansas State University. From 2011 to 2016 she was the commissioner of the Great South Athletic Conference.

Amanda Nipp is the new vice president of student services at Northeast Community College in Norfolk, Nebraska. She has been serving as dean of enrollment management at the college. Nipp joined the staff at the college six years ago.

Nipp earned a bachelor’s degree in communication from Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln and a master’s degree in higher education from the University of Kansas.

Barbara Burke was named senior associate athletics director for sport administration and event management and senior woman administrator at the University of Iowa. She was the deputy athletics director at Tulane University in New Orleans. She is the former director of athletics at Eastern Illinois University.

Burke is a graduate of Western Michigan University, where she played basketball and softball. She earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Julie Nuter was appointed chief human resource officer with the Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois. The laboratory is operated by the University of Chicago. Dr. Nuter has been serving as vice president for human resources at Iowa State University. She joined the staff at Iowa State in 2013 after working for DePaul University in Chicago.

Dr. Nuter is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She holds master’s degrees from Columbia College and Loyola University in Chicago and a Ph.D. in organization development from Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois.

Karen Bearce was named associate vice president for academic affairs at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She has been serving as interim dean of institutional effectiveness and professor of psychology at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor Township, New Jersey.

Dr. Bearce is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Pamela Tolson was named director of communications at Virginia State University. She has been serving as director of communication at Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the former director of media relations at Florida A&M University.

Tolson is a graduate of Elizabeth City State University, where she majored in English.

Amy Smith was appointed assistant director for student and academic services at the University of Maine’s outreach center in Belfast, Maine. She has been serving as an academic adviser to the University of Maine’s Explorations Program.

Smith was the valedictorian of the Class of 2010 at the University of Maine. She went on to earn a master’s degree and is currently working on a doctorate at the university.

Laura Gail Lunsford was named director of the H. David and Diane Swain Center for Business and Economic Services at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. For the past eight years, she has been a member of the psychology faculty at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Lunsford holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. in psychology from North Carolina State University. She also earned a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Eboney Hearn was promoted to executive director of the Office of Engineering Outreach Programs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been serving as assistant dean for graduate education and diversity initiatives in the Office of the Dean of Graduate Education.

Hearn is a graduate of MIT, where she majored in chemical engineering. She holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard University.

Barbara Daush was named a development officer for the metropolitan Memphis area for the University of Mississippi. She served for 22 years as president of St. Agnes Academy-Saint Dominic School in Memphis.

Dausch is a 1974 graduate of the University of Mississippi, where she majored in liberal arts.

Latonya Guillory was appointed director of affirmative action, equal employment opportunity at the University of Southern Mississippi. She is a former equal employment opportunity officer for Baton Rouge Community College and the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

Dr. Guillory is a graduate of Louisiana State University, where she majored in political science and international studies. She earned a master of public administration degree and a Ph.D. in public policy from Southern University in Baton Rouge.