New Administrative Positions for Nine Women at Colleges and Universities

Joanna Wang has been named the new program executive for the Administrative Transformation Program, a multi-year initiative to improve and modernize human resources, finance, and research administration operations at every University of Wisconsin System campus. Most recently, Wang served as the deputy chief innovation officer at Dallas College in Texas.

Wang has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Dallas and is expected to complete a doctorate in higher education administration from Southern Methodist University this spring.

Montana State University has selected Amber Long as its new associate vice president of student wellness to oversee the university’s medical, counseling, health education, recreation, and fitness services to its nearly 17,000 students. Long is currently the executive director of Wellness and Recreation Services at the University of Colorado Denver, a position she has held since 2016.

Long holds a bachelor’s degree in community and public health education and a master’s degree in higher education leadership and policy studies from Iowa State University.

Ava Willis-Barksdale was appointed vice president for institutional advancement at Lincoln Univerity in Pennsylvania. She will also serve as executive director of the Lincoln University Foundation. She has been serving as associate vice president for advancement at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.

Willis-Barksdale is a graduate of Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, where she majored in medical technology. She earned a master’s degree in health science education from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Ellen Zitis was named executive director of the Berkeley College Foundation in Paramus, New Jersey. She previously served as associate director of Northeast regional advancement for the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Earlier, she was an account executive and managed advertising sales for USA Today and the Newark Star-Ledger.

Zitis holds a bachelor’s degree with majors in marketing and industrial relation from Syracuse University in New York.

Stacy Gregg has been named director of procurement at South Carolina State University. Her previous post was procurement manager at the University of South Carolina. She has also worked with the South Carolina Office of State Procurement.

Gregg holds a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies (management & English) from the University of South Carolina.

Cherie Herrin has been named interim associate vice president and deputy chief information officer at the University of Central Florida. She has been serving as program director of Knight Vision, a program that is revamping human resource and financial services technology at the university.

Herrin earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. She holds an executive MBA from Georgia State University and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in industrial engineering.

Theresa Dooley has been appointed open education librarian in scholarly communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In this role, she will be responsible for setting the strategic direction for open and affordable course content throughout the university’s libraries and across the campus.

Dooley is a graduate of Stony Brook University in New York, where she majored in journalism. She holds a master of library and information science degree from Simmons University in Boston.

Toni Mooney Smith is the inaugural vice chancellor for marketing and communications at Rutgers University-Camden. She most recently served as executive director of marketing and communications for the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston.

Smith is a graduate of the University of Houston, where she majored in communication. She holds a master’s degree in communication from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Emily Gibson will serve as the director of local government and community relations at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. For the past seven years, Gibson has been the director of planning and geographic information system services for Montgomery County, Virginia.

Gibson graduated from Virginia Tech in 2003 with a degree in environmental policy and planning.

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