Jennifer Church Hightower, vice president for student services at Arizona State University and a former dean of student affairs at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, died on January 15 in Phoenix, Arizona. She was 50 years old and had suffered from cancer.
Hightower began her career in higher education as director of residence life and student activities at Yakima Valley Community College in Washington State. She joined the Division of Student Affairs at Carnegie Mellon in 1995 as coordinator of community standards and quickly rose through the ranks to assistant dean, associate dean, interim dean, and dean of student affairs in 2006. In 2008, she and her family moved to Indianapolis, but she remained a part-time director of special projects in the division for several years. She has served as vice president for student services at Arizona State University since 2011.
Hightower was a graduate of Arizona State University, where she majored in journalism. She earned a master’s degree in education at the University of Iowa.