Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Names New President; Regis U. Chief Executive Plans to Retire

Gretchen Ertl

CHIEF EXECUTIVES
Appointments
Steven C. Adamson, provost and executive vice president of Arizona Christian University, has been named president of Erskine College. He will succeed Robert E. Gustafson.

Augustine A. Boakye, interim president of Essex County College, in New Jersey, has been named to the post permanently.

Peter Buckley, dean of the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, has been named chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

Rupert A. Hayles Jr., chief operating officer and executive vice president at Pillar College, has been named president. He succeeds David E. Schroeder, who was named chancellor of the college.

Suzanne Keen, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at Hamilton College, will become president of Scripps College on July 1.

James T. Minor, assistant vice chancellor and senior strategist in the Office of the Chancellor at California State University, will become chancellor of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville on March 1.

Stephen Perez, provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University at Sacramento, has been named interim president of San Jose State University.

Martin A. Schmidt, provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will become president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on July 1. He will succeed Shirley Ann Jackson, who will step down after more than 20 years as president.

Vincent Solis, president of Western Nevada College, will become president of Brazosport College.

Michael Williams, president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, is the sole finalist to be chancellor of the University of North Texas system.

Resignations
Pete Gallego, president of Sul Ross State University, plans to step down at the end of the 2021-22 academic year.

Paula Rooney, president of Dean College, plans to step down after 27 years at the end of the 2021-22 academic year.

Retirements
Donald Bachand, president of Saginaw Valley State University since 2014, plans to retire in December 2022.

Joseph Jones, president of Fresno Pacific University, will retire next year.

Bill Seymour, president of Cleveland State Community College since 2014, plans to retire next year.

The Rev. John Fitzgibbons, president of Regis University since 2012, plans to retire at the end of the academic year.

CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICERS
Appointments
Robin Cautin, acting provost of Sacred Heart University since May, has been named to the post permanently.

Rachel Chrastil, director of accreditation at Xavier University in Ohio, has been named provost and chief academic officer.

Kathy Littles, associate vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Saint Mary’s College of California, has been named provost of the California Institute of Integral Studies.

OTHER TOP ADMINISTRATORS
Appointments
Gadi Dechter, senior director of public affairs at APCO Worldwide’s Washington, D.C, office, will become vice president for communications and government affairs at Princeton University on January 10.

Adrian Dowell, assistant vice president and associate athletics director at Creighton University, has been named vice chancellor for athletics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Jody C. Randall, founding director of the Office of LGBTQIA Education and Engagement and an adjunct lecturer in women’s and gender studies at Texas Tech University, has been named vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

Nancy Staudt, dean of the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named vice president for innovation and dean of the Pardee RAND Graduate School.

Resignations
Jonathan S. Lewin, executive vice president for health affairs and executive director of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center at Emory University and chief executive and chairman of Emory Healthcare, plans to step down and join the faculty.

Retirements
Legail P. Chandler, vice chancellor for human resources at Washington University in St. Louis, plans to retire on June 30.

DEANS
Appointments
Ellen M. Bassett, a professor of urban and environmental planning and associate dean of research in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, has been named dean of the College of Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Camille Carey, vice dean and associate dean of academic affairs at the School of Law at the University of New Mexico, has been named dean of the law school.

Trevor Collier, interim dean of the School of Business Administration at the University of Dayton, has been named to the post permanently.

Kevin Garewal, associate director of collections at the Harvard Law School Library, will become vice provost and dean of libraries at the University of Rochester in Febraury.

Joseph A. Himle, associate dean of faculty affairs in the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, will become interim dean of the school on January 1.

Carolyn C. Meltzer, a professor and chair of the department of radiology and imaging sciences at Emory University, will become dean of the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California on March 1.

Julie G. Pilitsis, division chief of functional neurosurgery and chair and professor of the basic neuroscience department at Albany Medical College, will become dean of the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University in February.

Catherine Staub, an associate professor and director of the E.T. Meredith Center for Magazine Studies at Drake University, has been named dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Jennifer Sullivan, interim dean of the Graduate School at Augusta University since July 2020, has been named to the post permanently.

Morse Hyun-Myung Tan, ambassador at large for the U.S. State Department’s Office of Global Criminal Justice, will become dean of the School of Law at Liberty University on January 1.

Anisa M. Zvonkovic, dean of the College of Health and Human Performance at East Carolina University, will become dean of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia on July 1.

Resignations
Paul Tesluk, dean of the School of Management at the University at Buffalo, part of the State University of New York, plans to step down and return to the faculty at the end of the academic year.

OTHER ADMINISTRATORS
Appointments
Cheryl Boone Isaacs, former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has been named director of the Sidney Poitier New American Film School at Arizona State University.

Trisha Mackey, academic and research coordinator of the TRIO Program at North Carolina State University, has been named director of the Transformational Scholarships Program in the College of Education.

Vijay Ramani, a professor of environment and energy at Washington University in St. Louis, will become vice provost for graduate education on January 1.

Peter Schiffer, a professor of applied physics at Yale University, has been named director of strategic projects in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean’s office.

Departures
Dan Mullen, head football coach at the University of Florida, was fired on November 21.

Dereck Rovaris, vice provost for the Office of Diversity at Louisiana State University, has retired after more than a decade with the university.

FACULTY
Resignations
Michael J. Mina, an associate medical director in clinical microbiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an assistant professor of epidemiology at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, will step down to join a biotech-software company, eMed.

ORGANIZATIONS AND AGENCIES
Appointments
Michelle Young, dean of libraries at Clarkson University, has been named chair of the New York Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee.

Resignations
Teresa Lubbers, commissioner of Indiana’s Commission for Higher Education since 2009, plans to step down next year.

DEATHS
Bob Gill, a former lecturer at the School of Visual Arts, died on November 9. He was 90.

John Graham, officer-in-charge of the State University of New York College at Potsdam, died on November 27. He was 57.

Muriel Lezak, a former professor of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University, died on October 6. She was 94.

Justus Rosenberg, a professor of literature at Bard College who fought in the French Resistance during World War II, died on October 30. He was 100.

Mark Schuster, dean of graduate-student life at Rutgers University at New Brunswick, died on November 18.

Kariamu Welsh, a professor emerita of dance and former director of the Institute for African Dance Research and Performance at Temple University, died on October 12. She was 72.

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