New Administrative Duties for 18 Women in Higher Education

Mary E. O’Dowd was appointed executive director for health systems and population health integration at Rutgers University Health. She was commissioner of the State of New Jersey Department of Health.

O’Dowd is a graduate of Rutgers University, where she majored in biology. She holds a master of public health degree from Columbia University.

Tricia Y. Paik was named the Florence Finch Abbott Director of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in South Hadley, Massachusetts, effective November 30. She has been serving as the curator of contemporary art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Dr. Paik is a graduate of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she majored in English and art history. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.

Yves-Rose Porcena was appointed senior diversity officer at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton. She was the director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

A native of Haiti, Dr. Porcena earned a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a doctorate in business administration from Kennesaw State University in Georgia.

Sharon Wilson-Taylor was named vice president of student affairs at Columbia College in Chicago. Since July, she has been serving as interim vice president of student success at the college. Earlier she was associate vice president and dean of students.

Dr. Wilson-Taylor is a graduate of Illinois State University, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree in counseling from Roosevelt University in Chicago and a Ph.D. in higher education administration from Loyola University of Chicago.

Barbara J. Wilson, who has been serving as interim chancellor of the flagship campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, was named executive vice president and vice president for academic affairs for the University of Illinois System.

Dr. Wilson has also been serving as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the flagship campus but will now give up that post. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in communication, all from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Madeline E. Lopez is the new director of the Intercultural Center at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. She was the founding director of the Cultural Education Center at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.

Lopez is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a master’s degree from Princeton University.

Michele Sipley was promoted to director of financial aid at Syracuse University in New York. She has been on the staff at the university for the past 17 years. Earlier she was on the staff at the University of New Orleans.

Sipley is a graduate of Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, where she majored in management.

Robin Holmes was appointed vice president for student affairs for the University of California System. For the past nine years, she has been serving as vice president for student life at the University of Oregon. She has been a member of the University of Oregon community for the past 25 years.

Dr. Holmes holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from California State University, Fullerton. She earned a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology.

LeAnn Strickland Melvin was promoted to director of fraternity and sorority life at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. She joined the staff at the university in 2014 as assistant director of parent and family services.

Strickland Melvin earned a bachelor’s degree in American Indian studies from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. She is currently completing work on a master’s degree in student personnel administration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Lisa Grace was named the new executive director of university audits at Arizona State University. Since 2007, Grace has worked for ACI Worldwide, a n electronic payments software company.

Grace holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in management information systems from  Bellevue University in Nebraska.

Andrea Fletcher was appointed assistant dean in the College of Business at New Mexico State University. She will also direct the Woodrow Wilson MBA Fellowship in Education Leadership Program at the university. Fletcher was the chief academic officer for the public school system in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Fletcher is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where she majored in accounting. She holds a master’s degree in educational administration from New Mexico State University.

Briana Coggins is the new associate director of alumni relations for the College of Pharmacy and the College of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. She has been serving as associate director of campus engagement in the alumni office at the university.

Coggins is a 2010 graduate of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Cincinnati.

Tiffany Legington Graham was appointed director of development for the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis. She was the chief development officer for the Levine Museum of the New South and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts & Culture in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Graham is a graduate of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she majored in mathematics and industrial and systems engineering. She holds a master’s degree in industrial and systems engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Jennifer Ambrose was named director of the Writing Center at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. She was the assistant director of the Hanson Center for Technical Communication at the University of Iowa.

Dr. Ambrose is a graduate of Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in American studies from the University of Iowa.

Cynthia Evers was appointed interim vice president of student affairs at Albany State University in Georgia. She was vice president for student affairs at Atlanta Metropolitan College.

Dr. Evers is a graduate of Virginia State University. She holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in higher education administration from George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Erin Morrison was promoted to executive director of corporate and foundation relations in the development office of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She was the senior director for community development at the medical center for the past five years.

Before joining the staff at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Morrison was vice president of consulting services at InfoWorks Inc.

Erika R. Smith was appointed director of the Blavatnik Fund for Innovation at Yale University. She was the deputy director of the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute.

Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in biomedical and electrical engineering and an MBA from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Millicent Bond was promoted to director of alumnae relations at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She has been serving as a regional development officer for the alumnae association.

Bond is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and earned a law degree at the University of Wisconsin.