Five Higher Educational Institutions Appoint Women as Their Provosts

Susan R. Wente was promoted to provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. For the past five years, she has served as associate vice chancellor for research at the university. She is also senior associate dean for biomedical sciences and a professor of cell and developmental biology at the university’s School of Medicine. She has been on the Vanderbilt faculty since 2002.

Dr. Wente, a native of Nebraska, is a graduate of the University of Iowa, where she majored in biochemistry. She holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley.

Marisa Kelly was named provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Suffolk University in Boston. She has been serving as provost and vice president for educational affairs at Ithaca College in New York. She will begin her new job at Suffolk University on August 1.

Dr. Kelly is a graduate of California State University, Sacramento. She earned a master’s degree in political theory from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Kansas.

Dana Dunn will be the next provost at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She will take office on August 1. She has been on the faculty at the University of Texas at Arlington for the past 27 years and most recently served as provost.

Dr. Dunn holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Dallas and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of North Texas.

Katherine Newman was appointed provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Since 2010, Dr. Newman has been a professor of sociology and dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Earlier, she taught at Princeton University and Harvard University. Dr. Newman is the author of 12 books, including her latest work, After Freedom: The Rise of the Post-Apartheid Generation in Democratic South Africa (Beacon Press, 2014).

Dr. Newman is graduate of the University of California at San Diego, where she majored in sociology and philosophy. She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.

Jenifer K. Ward was named provost at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana. She will become provost on July 1. Dr. Ward has been serving as dean of the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington.

Dr. Ward is a graduate of Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. She earned a Ph.D. in Germanic language and literature from Vanderbilt University.