New Administrative Posts for 12 Women in Higher Education

Kathleen Wong was named director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and chief diversity officer at San Jose State University in California. Since 2014, she has served as director of the Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies at the University of Oklahoma. From 2005 to 2012, Dr. Wong was an assistant professor of intercultural communication at Western Michigan University.

Dr. Wong is a graduate of California State University, East Bay in Hayward. She holds a Ph.D. in intercultural communications from Arizona State University.

Lynn Vanderhoek was appointed associate vice president for principal gifts and strategic initiatives in the Division of Advancement and External Affairs at Syracuse University in New York. She has been serving as assistant dean of advancement for the Newhouse School of Public Communications at the university.

Vanderhoek is a graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She earned a master’s degree in television, radio, and film at Syracuse University.

Patricia Green-Powell is the inaugural director of the Brooksville Agricultural Educational Research Station of Florida A&M University. The university is using the 3,800-acre site for research on subtropical fruits and animals. Dr. Green-Powell is the former interim dean of the College of Education at the university and has been on the faculty since 2003.

Dr. Green-Powell is a graduate of Florida A&M University. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in educational leadership and administration from Florida State University.

Julie Nagel is the new associate vice chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Kansas. She has been serving in the post on an interim basis. She joined the staff at the university in 2011 as director of industrial partnership. Previously, Dr. Nagel was director of the Oncological Sciences Center at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Dr. Nagel is a graduate of John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where she majored in biology. She holds a master’s degree in zoology from Oklahoma State University and a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Tennessee.

Sandra Root-Elledge was appointed director of the Wyoming Institute for Disabilities at the University of Wyoming. She has been on the staff at the university since 2004 and has been serving as director of Wyoming Assistive Technology Resources.

Root-Elledge holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from the University of Wyoming.

Kathy M. Collins was named vice president for student affairs at the University of Rhode Island. She has been serving as director of residence education and housing services at Michigan State University. Before joining the staff at Michigan State in 2012, she was associate director of residence education at Texas A&M University.

Dr. Collins is a graduate of Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania and a doctorate from Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Kimberly Gramm was appointed managing director of the Innovative Hub at Research Park at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. She has been serving as associate vice president of the Tech Runway program at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Gramm is a graduate of the University of South Florida in Tampa. She earned an MBA at the University of Tampa.

Deena Coston is the new finance officer for the College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas. Since 2003, she was the controller for Central Arkansas Water in Little Rock.

A certified public accountant, Coston earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.

Pamela Mosley Gresham was appointed director of human resources at Delaware State University in Dover. She was the associate director of human resources at Kean University in Union, New Jersey.

Gresham is a graduate of the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York System, where she majored in criminal justice. She holds a juris doctorate from the University at Buffalo School of Law.

Lesley Millar-Nicholson was named director of the Technology Licensing Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, effective in July. She currently serves as the director of the Office of Technology Management at the University of Illinois.

Millar-Nicholson is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Georgia and an MBA from the University of Illinois.

Robin Rasor was appointed director of the Office of Licensing and Ventures at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, effective July 1. She has been serving as managing director of licensing in the Office of Technology Transfer at the University of Michigan.

Rasor holds a bachelor’s degree in bacteriology and zoology from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio. She earned a master’s degree in genetics from Ohio State University.

Angela Winfield was promoted to director of inclusion and workforce diversity in the Division of Human Resources at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She has been serving as program manager at the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at Cornell.

Winfield is a graduate of Barnard College in New York City and Cornell Law School.