Universities Announce the Appointments of Seven Women to Dean Positions

Lisa R. Braverman will be the next dean of the School of Professional Studies at the City University of New York. Her appointment is effective August 21. She has been serving as the assistant vice president of workforce credentialing and community impact at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York. She previously served as vice provost for academic and faculty affairs at Excelsior College in Albany, New York, and spent four years in the role of dean of the Anthony J. Petrocelli College of Continuing Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.

Dr. Braverman is a graduate of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. She holds two master’s degrees and a doctoral degree from New York University.

Stephanie B. Caulder has been named the founding dean of the College of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She was the dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Radford University in Virginia. Earlier, was chair and coordinator of graduate studies in the music department at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Caulder holds a master’s degree in multiple woodwind performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She holds a doctor of music degree in oboe performance from Florida State University.

Jenelle Pitt-Parker has been appointed dean of the College of Education and Integrative Studies at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She most recently served as a professor in the department of counselor education and rehabilitation and as associate dean at the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at Fresno State University in California.

Dr. Pitt-Parker earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Riverside. She holds a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling and a Ph.D. in rehabilitation counselor education from Michigan State University.

Michelle Kazmer is the new dean of the College of Communication and Information at Florida State University. Dr. Kazmer joined the faculty at the university in 2002 as an assistant professor of information, rising in the ranks to full professor in 2014 and becoming the college’s associate dean for academic affairs and faculty advancement in 2018.

Professor Kazmer holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University. She earned a master of library science degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a doctorate from the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Barbara Jones was named dean of the School of Social Work at Boston University, effective August 1. She has been serving as associate dean for health affairs at Steve Hicks School of Social Work and chair of the department of health social work at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Jones holds a master of social work degree and a Ph.D. from the University at Albany of the State University of New York System.

Lisa A. Crooms-Robinson was appointed interim dean of the Howard University School of Law. She is an expert on constitutional law and human rights and has served as a faculty member of the School of Law since 1993. From 2012-2019, Professor Crooms-Robinson served as the School of Law’s associate dean of academic affairs. She is a co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of African American Citizenship, 1865-Present (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Professor Crooms-Robinson is an alumna of Howard University, earning a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1984. She earned a juris doctorate at the University of Michigan Law School in 1991.

Elsbeth Kalenderian, professor in the oral and maxillofacial surgery department at the Amsterdam University Medical Center, has been named dean of the Marquette University School of Dentistry in Milwaukee. Earlier in her career, Dr. Kalenderian was professor and chair of preventive and restorative dental sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and clinic dean and chair at Harvard School of Dental Medicine.

Dr. Kalenderian hold a master of public health degree from Harvard University. She earned a doctor of dental sciences degree from Rijks Universiteit Groningen in The Netherlands and a Ph.D. in dental diagnostic terminologies from the University of Amsterdam.