A Dozen Women Appointed to Administrative Posts at Colleges and Universities

Esther Rosbrook has been promoted to director of the ALANA Canter at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. She was the assistant director of the center. She arrived at Colgate in 2012 and in 2016 was named assistant director of residential life and housing.

Rosbrook holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and business management from the University of Indonesia and a master of science in adult education from the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York System. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in organizational leadership at Northeastern University in Boston.

Amy Johnson will serve as vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, effective August 1. She was a special assistant to the vice president for student affairs at Eastern Washington University.

Dr. Johnson is a graduate of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma Washington. She holds a master’s degree and an educational doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.

Cynthia Pickett will be the next associate provost for diversity, equity, and inclusion at DePaul University in Chicago. She will take office on July 1. Dr. Pickett currently serves as associate vice provost for faculty equity and inclusion, as well as an associate professor of psychology, at the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Pickett is a graduate of Stanford University, where she majored in psychology. She then went on to earn a master’s degree in social psychology and a doctorate in social psychology with a minor in quantitative psychology from Ohio State University.

Alecia Sundsmo has been named new director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Cornell University Health. She has been serving as clinical director of mental health services at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Sundsmo received a bachelor’s degree from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Pacific University’s School of Professional Psychology in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Candice Storey Lee has been named vice chancellor for athletics and university affairs and athletic director at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Lee is Vanderbilt’s first woman athletic director. She is also the first African American woman to head an athletics program at a university in the Southeastern Conference.  Dr. Lee has been serving in the posts on an interim basis since February and earlier was associate vice chancellor and deputy athletic director.

Dr. Lee earned a bachelor’s degree in human and organizational development, a master’s degree in counseling and a doctorate in higher education administration from Vanderbilt University.

Abiya Ahmed is the new associate dean and director of The Markaz: Resource Center for Engagement with the Cultures and Peoples of the Muslim World at Stanford University.

Ahmed is a native of Pakistan. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communication and journalism from the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, a master’s degree in Islamic studies from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and a master’s degree in religious studies from Stanford. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate in education at Stanford.

Jasmin Sessoms has been named interim director of alumni affairs at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. She has been serving as assistant director of development at the university.

Sessoms is a magna cum laude graduate of Fayetteville State University, where she majored in mass communication.

Shay Little was appointed vice president for student affairs at Georgia Southern University. She has been serving as special assistant to the president and vice president of student affairs at Kent State University in Ohio. Before joining the staff at Kent State in 2012, Dr. Little spent 15 years at the University of Georgia and three years at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Dr. Little has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She earned a master’s degree in counseling and student personnel services from Oklahoma State University, and a doctorate in counseling and student personnel services from the University of Georgia.

Taylor Cain has been named director of engagement, leadership, and service at the University of Georgia. Since 2017, she has served as associate director of the Tate Student Center and director of the Center for Student Activities and Involvement.

Cain holds a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs from the University of South Carolina. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in college student affairs administration from the University of Georgia.

Carla Jacobs was appointed the chief audit officer at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Prior to joining the university, Jacobs served as the internal auditor with the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

Jacobs is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, where she majored in accounting.

Wendy W. Lin-Cook has been appointed vice president for enrollment management at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Dr. Lin was associate provost, for enrollment management and academic services at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Previously she served as associate vice president of admissions at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.

Dr. Lin-Cook earned a bachelor’s degree in banking and finance and a master’s degree in humanities from Hofstra University in New York. She holds a Ph.D. in higher education leadership, management, and policy from Seton Hall University.

Karen Yoder was hired as the new director of athletics at California Maritime University in Vallejo.  She was the athletic director at Mission Community College in Santa Clara, California.

Yoder earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in kinesiology/professional perspectives from what is now California State University, East Bay in Hayward.