Four Women Appointed to Dean Positions at Major Universities

J. Meejin Yoon was appointed dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. When she takes office on January 1, she will be the first woman to serve as dean since the college was founded in 1896. Yoon is chair of the architecture department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She joined the faculty at MIT in 2001. She is the author of Public Works: Unsolicited Small Projects for the Big Dig (Map Book Publishers, 2008).

Professor Yoon is a graduate of Cornell University, where she majored in architecture. She holds a master of architecture degree in urban design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.

Gale S. Etschmaier was appointed dean of university libraries at Florida State University. Since 2011, she has served as dean of library and information access at San Diego State University in California. Earlier, Dr. Etschmaier was associate university librarian for public service at George Washington University. She will begin her new job at Florida State on September 7.

Dr. Etschmaier is a graduate of Stony Brook University in New York, where she majored in music. She holds a master of library science degree from the University at Albany of the State University of New York System and an educational doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.

Anne L. Balazs was named dean of the College of Business and Innovation at the University of Toledo in Ohio. She has been serving as interim dean of the College of Business at Eastern Michigan University. Earlier, she was an associate professor of marketing and interim dean of the College of Business at the Mississippi University for Women. When Dr. Balazs starts her new job on August 13, she will be the first woman to serve as the permanent dean of the business school at the University of Toledo.

Dr. Balazs is a graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where she majored in economics. She holds a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Kimberly Chestnut was appointed dean of students and associate vice president for student affairs at the University of Wyoming. She has been serving as assistant vice president for student affairs at West Chester University in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Chestnut is a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree in industrial/organizational psychology from George Washington University and a second master’s degree and a doctorate in human sexuality education from Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania.