The University System of Georgia announced that Mary Ellen Wilson will become interim president of Waycross College on July 1. Since 2000, Dr. Wilson has served as vice president for academic affairs at Middle Georgia College in Cochran. She served for a time as interim president and has taught history at the college since 1983.
Professor Wilson holds an associate’s degree from Middle Georgia College and a bachelor’s degree in history from Mercer University. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in history from Florida State University.
The board of trustees of Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, has named Antoinette M. Hays as the educational institution’s 10th president. Dr. Hays will take office on July 1. She is currently dean of the School of Nursing, Science, and Health Professions at Regis College.
Students at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo sought to increase awareness of sexual assault by printing up T-shirts that contained the slogan “I ♥ Consensual Sex.” Students who are members of the campus SAFER program partnered with the National Organization of Women to produce the shirts and distribute them on campus. The students said that the provocative shirts generated discussions on campus that allowed them to talk with their peers about the meaning of consent and the prevalence of sexual assault. But the school’s administration told the SAFER group that they could not longer use the university’s name on the T-shirt with the sexually suggestive language.
Susan B. Marine, assistant dean of student life and director of the Harvard College Women’s Center, has announced she will leave Harvard at the close of the academic year to become director of higher education programs at Merrimack College’s Graduate School of Education. Dr. Marine has been at Harvard since 2002.
Rebecca Wardlow has been promoted to provost at Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa. She was executive dean at the university’s College of Education.
Joye Norris, professor of education at Drury University in Springfield, Illinois, was named associate provost for access and outreach at Missouri State University, also in Springfield. Previously, she was dean of the College of Education at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. She will begin her new job on July 1.
Susan West Engelkemeyer was named the seventh president of Nichols College, a business college in Dudley, Massachusetts. Dr. Engelkemeyer will begin her duties as president on August 1. She is currently dean of the Charlton College of Business at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. From 2005 to 2009 she was dean of the School of Business at Ithaca College.
Nancy A. Hardesty, a professor of religion at Clemson University who advocated for greater equality for women in evangelical Christian denominations, has died in Atlanta after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 69 years old.
Karen Watson, Regents Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, provost, and vice president for academic affairs at Texas A&M University, was chosen as president-elect of ABET, formerly known as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. ABET is the leading accrediting agency for academic programs in applied science, computer science, engineering, and technology. She will be installed in her new post in October and will become president of ABET a year later.
New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that of the more than 3.2 million living African Americans who held bachelor’s degrees in 2010, 60.2 percent were women. For whites, women held only a slight edge over men in bachelor’s degree attainments.
Jeanne M. Leiby, associate professor of English at Louisiana State University and editor of the prestigious literary journal, The Southern Review, died in a car accident in Louisiana. Professor Leiby was 46 years old.
Jann Joseph was appointed dean of the College of Education at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. When she takes her new post in July, Dr. Joseph will also assume a tenured professorship in teacher education. Since 2006, she has served as associate dean for professional development and administration at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences of Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.
The board of regents for the University System of Georgia has announced that Bonita Jacobs is one of two finalists for the presidency of North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega. Dr. Jacobs is a professor of higher education counseling and executive director of the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students at the University of North Texas in Denton. She is the former editor of The Journal of College Orientation and Transition.
Kim Nugent was named president of the Houston Metro division of DeVry University. She was vice president of faculty development for Educational Management Corporation.
Jane Przybysz was appointed director of the McKissick Museum on the campus of the University of South Carolina. She was executive director of the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles in California. Previously, she worked at the McKissick Museum from 1993 to 1998.
Pari Sabety was named vice chancellor and chief financial officer of Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She was chief financial officer and member of the cabinet for former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland.
Karen Remmler, professor of German studies, critical social thought, and gender studies at Mount Holyoke College, was named director of the Five College Women’s Research Studies Center. The center represents 350 women’s studies scholars at member institutions of the Five College Consortium: Amherst College, Smith College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Susan Digby, acting director of music at Queens College of Cambridge University, will join the faculty of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California for the fall 2011 semester. Digby, also known as Lady Eatwell, is the wife of British economist Lord John Eatwell, president of Queens College. She is the founder of the Voices Foundation, a nonprofit group that works to support music education in elementary schools in Britain.
Lisa Brock was named academic director of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. She will begin her new assignment in September. Currently, Dr. Brock is associate professor of African history and diaspora studies and chair of the department of humanities, history, and social sciences at Columbia College in Chicago.
Connie Boerst was named interim president of Bellin College in Green Bay, Wisconsin. She will become interim president on July 1 upon the retirement of current president V. Jane Muhl. Dr. Boerst is currently vice president of academic affairs and associate professor of nursing at the college.
Sheryl A. Sorby, professor of mechanical engineering at Michigan Technological University, was honored with the 2011 Sharon Keillor Award for Women in Engineering Education from the American Society of Engineering Education.
Kaja Silverman, the Katherine Stein Sachs and Keith L. Sachs Professor of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania, received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for her “exemplary contributions to humanistic scholarship.” Professor Silverman will receive $1,5 million over the next six years to support her scholarship.
Autumn K. Tooms, professor and director of the Center for Educational Leadership at the University of Tennessee, received the 2011 William J. Davis Award for outstanding research in educational administration from the American Educational Research Association.
Jane M. Wood was named dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Park University in Parkville, Missouri. Dr. Wood has been an associate professor of English at the university since 2006.
Adele S. Newson-Horst was appointed dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Morgan State University in Baltimore, effective July 1. Currently, she is a professor of English at Missouri State University.
Diana Meeks-Sjostrom was named dean of the master of science nursing degree program at Chamberlain College of Nursing, headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois. She has been serving as an associate professor at the nursing school.
Women have made tremendous progress in American higher education. Yet in many areas a wide gender gap remains. Election to the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies is just one example.
Elaine Tuttle Hansen, who will step down in July as president of Bates College, the highly regarded liberal arts college in Maine, was named executive director of the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She will begin her new assignment on August 1.
Jean Elizabeth Sander was named dean of the Center for Veterinary Health Sciences at Oklahoma State University. She will become dean on August 1. Currently, she is associate dean for academic and student affairs and professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Ohio State University.
Mary Ann Rankin, dean of the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, was named president and CEO of the National Math and Science Initiative. Dr. Rankin, who has been on the faculty at the University of Texas since 1975, will assume her new post on August 1.
Lily McNair was named provost and vice president for academic affairs at Wagner College on Staten Island in New York City, effective July 1. Dr. McNair is currently associate provost for research and professor of psychology at Spelman College in Atlanta. Prior to coming to Spelman, Professor McNair taught at the State University of New York at New Paltz, the University of Georgia, and Vassar College.
Janie M. Fouke was named head of the engineering school of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. When she assumes her new post in July, she will be the first woman to lead an engineering school in Singapore. The school has the largest enrollment of engineering students in the world.
Cheryl Davenport Dozier, associate provost, chief diversity officer, and professor of social work at the University of Georgia, was named interim president of Savannah State University, effective May 9. She will replace Earl G. Yarbrough Sr. who has served as president of Savannah State since 2007. The board of trustees declined to renew Dr. Yarbrough’s contract.
Debra Friedman was named chancellor of the University of Washington Tacoma, effective July 1. She is currently dean of the College of Public Programs, professor of public affairs, and vice president at Arizona State University. As an administrator she has jurisdiction over the university’s campus in downtown Phoenix.
Sian Beilock, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Chicago. She has examined how stress contributes to poor performance. She is the author of 
Naomi I. Eisenberger is an assistant professor of social psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is director of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory as well as co-director of the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory.
Wendy B. Mendes is Sarlo/Ekman Associate Professor of Emotion at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. Her research examines how emotions, stress, and motivation are experienced in the body and how they influence behavior and decision making.
Daphna Shohamy is an assistant professor of psychology at Columbia University in New York City. She earned a Ph.D. in psychology in 2003 from Rutgers University.
Rachel Gartner was named director of Jewish chaplaincy at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She will assume her new position in August. Currently Gartner is rabbi and executive director of the Hillel chapter at Miami University in Ohio.
Laura M. Montgomery was named associate dean of global and experimental learning at Wheaton College in Illinois. She is currently professor of anthropology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. Dr. Montgomery will start at Wheaton College in January.
Suzanne Lenhart was named Chancellor Professor at the University of Tennessee. This is the university’s highest academic honor. Dr. Lenhart has been a professor of mathematics at the university since 1981.
Beverly J. Warren was appointed provost and vice president for academic affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. She has been serving in the position on an interim basis for the past year. Previously, she was dean of the university’s School of Education.
Ann Marie Lipinski was named curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Lipinski, former editor of the Chicago Tribune and a 1998 Pulitzer Prize winner, was a senior lecturer and vice president for civic engagement at the University of Chicago. Lipinski is a graduate of the University of Michigan.
Myrtle E.B. Dorsey was named chancellor of St. Louis Community College in Missouri. Since 2002, she has been president of Baton Rouge Community College in Louisiana. She is also the chair-elect of the American Association of Community Colleges. Dr. Dorsey will take the helm of St. Louis Community College on June 16.
Maria Pabon Lopez has been selected as the new dean of the College of Law at Loyola University in New Orleans. She will assume her new post this summer. Currently, she is a professor of law at Indiana University.
Robin Kanarek was appointed interim dean of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Dr. Kanarek joined the Tufts University psychology department in 1977. She currently serves as the John Wade Professor in the School of Arts and Sciences.
Kathy E. Johnson was named dean of University College and associate vice chancellor for undergraduate education at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She currently serves as a professor and chair of the department of psychology at the university. She will become dean on July 1.
Sandra L. Kurtinitis, president of the Community College of Baltimore County in Maryland, received the 2011 Mildred Bulpitt Woman of the Year Award from the American Association of Women in Community Colleges. President Kurtinitis was honored for outstanding service to women in community colleges.
Betsy Bowen, professor of English at Fairfield University, received the 2011 Connecticut Higher Education Community Service Award from the Connecticut Department of Higher Education. Professor Bowen was honored for her work with the Mercy Learning Center in Bridgeport, a nonprofit group that provides literacy and life skills training for low-income women.
Carolyn Marvin, the Frances Yates Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, will receive the Fellows Book Award from the International Communication Association at the ICA conference in Boston in May. Professor Marvin was honored for her book 
Jo Allen was named the eighth president of Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the first graduate of the college to be named its president. Dr. Allen will assume her new post on July 1.
Lazar J. Greenfield, professor emeritus of surgery at the University of Michigan School of Medicine has resigned his position as president-elect of the American College of Surgeons. Greenfield resigned due to a controversy surrounding his authorship of a Valentine’s Day editorial in which he asserted that semen had a beneficial effect on the mood of women. Dr. Greenfield cited research that claims that female college students who had unprotected sex were happier than college-aged women who had sex with men who used condoms. He speculated that semen contained compounds that acted as antidepressants. The editorial concluded, “So there’s a deeper bond between men and women than St. Valentine would have suspected, and now we know there’s a better gift for that day than chocolates.”
Due to Greenfield’s resignation, the new president elect of the American College of Surgeons is Patricia J. Numann, professor emerita of surgery at the State University of New York at Syracuse. Dr. Numann joined the faculty at SUNY Upstate in 1970. An endowed chair and the breast cancer treatment center at the university have been named in her honor.
Bryn Mawr College, a highly rated liberal arts college for women in suburban Philadelphia, received a $400,000 grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation for a program that will help women from two community colleges transfer to Bryn Mawr. Under the program, low-income women at the Community College of Philadelphia and Montgomery County Community College will receive assistance, guidance, internships, research opportunities, and mentoring. Some high achieving women at the community colleges will take courses at Bryn Mawr during their second year and be eligible for Bryn Mawr’s junior year study-abroad program.
Two women are among the three finalists for dean at the University of Arkansas School of Law. Stacy L. Leeds is a professor of law and interim associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Kansas Law School. She is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and holds law degrees from the University of Tulsa and the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from the University of Tennessee.
Kathryn R.L. Rand is Floyd B. Sperry Professor of Law and interim dean at the University of North Dakota School of Law. She also serves as is the co-director of the Institute for the Study of Tribal Gaming Law and Policy. She is a graduate of the University of North Dakota and the University of Michigan Law School. Rand is a former assistant U.S. attorney.
In addition to the finalists for law school dean, Amy W. Apon is one of three finalists for dean of the graduate school at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Apon is currently director of the Arkansas High Performance Computing Center and professor of computer science and computer engineering at the University of Arkansas. She holds a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees from the University of Missouri and a Ph.D. in computer science from Vanderbilt University.