Eight Women Who Have Been Appointed Deans at Universities

Lisa A. Kitko has been named the sixth dean of the University of Rochester School of Nursing, effective September 1. She has been serving as associate dean for graduate education and director of the Ph.D. program at the Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing at Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Kitko has been a member of the nursing faculty at Penn State for more than 20 years.

Dr. Kitko received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Pittsburgh in 1990. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in nursing with a minor in gerontology from Penn State.

Henrietta Williams Pichon is the new dean of the College of Education at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. She most recently served as the interim dean of the College of Health, Education, and Social Transformation at New Mexico State University. She is the co-editor of African American Leadership and Mentoring Through Purpose, Preparation, and Preceptors (Information Science Reference, 2021).

Dr. Pichon holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in secondary English education from Louisiana Tech. She earned a Ph.D. in higher education administration at the University of New Orleans.

Sue VandeWoude has been named the next dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University. Dr. VandeWoude, a University Distinguished Professor and veterinary virologist, most recently oversaw the Colorado State University One Health Institute. She will be the first woman to serve as dean since the university launched its veterinary program in 1907.

After graduating in 1985 from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. VandeWoude completed her postdoctoral training in comparative medicine at Johns Hopkins University.

Ahkinyala Cobb-Abdullah is the new dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Virginia Union University in Richmond. Since 2016, she has been an associate professor of environmental science and ecology at the university. In 2018, Dr. Cobb-Abdullah was appointed to serve as the founding director of the university’s Center for STEM Diversity.

Dr. Cobb-Abdullah holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Tuskegee University in Alabama. She earned a master’s degree in molecular biology and a doctorate in environmental science from Florida A&M University.

Deborah Crown has been named the tenth dean of the Graziadio Business School at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Since 2016, Dr. Crown has served as a professor of management and dean of the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

Dr. Crown holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from North Central College, a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Colorado at Denver, and a Ph.D. in business administration from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Carla S. Freeman, the Goodrich C. White Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, will serve as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Emory University in Atlanta. She has been serving as executive associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Freeman joined the Emory College faculty in 1995.

Dr. Freeman is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, where she majored in anthropology. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Temple University in Philadelphia.

Vicki Williams was named dean of students and associate vice president of engagement at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She had been interim dean since February 2021.

Originally from Cleveland, Dr. Williams holds a bachelor’s degree in individual and family studies and a master’s degree in community counseling from Kent State University in Ohio. She earned a Ph.D. in organizational leadership from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Nell Jessup Newton, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame Law School, has been named interim dean of the School of Law at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem North Carolina. She served as dean at the Notre Dame Law School from 2009 to 2019. Earlier, she was the first woman to serve as dean of the law school at the University of Denver.

Professor Newton is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.