Providence College has announced the appointment of Dr. Margaret Watkins as its new Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Watkins has a long background in Catholic higher education and a deep respect for the Dominican commitment to truth and the intertwined call to contemplation and action. She is firmly committed to the vision of liberal arts education embodied by Providence’s School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Watkins currently serves as the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Seattle Pacific University and is responsible for the oversight of 15 departments. She also is a member of the Academic Leadership Team at Seattle Pacific and serves as the President of the International Hume Society. Dr. Watkins earned both her Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. Read more here.
Mr. Robert Herzog has been appointed as the next Vice President for Finance and Administration at Ursinus College. Mr. Herzog brings to Ursinus an impressive record of accomplishment spanning the higher education, corporate, and professional services sectors. Herzog led the financial operations for the 16 Tech Innovation District, an urban environment that brings together innovators and entrepreneurs in the life sciences, technology, and manufacturing sectors. His strategic and business acumen, coupled with his ability to seamlessly navigate complex financial transactions and build actionable public-private partnerships, helped propel 16 Tech as a leading, and highly diverse, economic hub for the state of Indiana. Prior to this role, Robert held senior finance and administration positions within higher education, most recently at Herzing University in Milwaukee, Wisc., and Berkeley College in New Jersey. Read more here.
Dr. Ross Maciejewski, Professor of Computer Science at Arizona State University, has been appointed Director of the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence following a competitive national search. Dr. Maciejewski also serves as Director of the Center for Accelerating Operational Efficiency – a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence. His primary research interests are in the areas of geographical visualization and visual analytics focusing on homeland security, public health, dietary analysis, social media, criminal incident reports, and the food-energy-water nexus. Dr. Maciejewski is a recipient of an NSF CAREER Award (2014) and was recently named a Fulton Faculty Exemplar and Global Security Fellow at Arizona State. Dr. Maciejewski received his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Purdue University.
Robert Morris University has appointed Dr. Joseph Zimmer as its new Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. Dr. Zimmer will be joining RMU from St. Bonaventure University where he has served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs since 2015. He also served as interim president in 2021-2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to serving as Provost at St. Bonaventure, Dr. Zimmer taught in the University's School of Education for 22 years and served as its dean from 2011-2015. Zimmer earned his bachelor's degree in English, a master's degree in English Education, and a doctorate in Reading Education from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Read more here.
California State University, East Bay has announced the appointment of Kathleen Wong(Lau), Ph.D., as the incoming University Diversity Officer. She will join Cal State East Bay on January 17, 2023. Dr. Wong(Lau) currently serves as the Chief Diversity Officer at San Jose State University, a Cabinet-level position she has held for the last six-and-a-half years. Prior to that, she served as the Executive Director of the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE). She was concurrently the Director of the Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies at the University of Oklahoma, where she taught the doctoral seminar on Diversity in Higher Education. She earned her B.A. in Speech Communication from California State University, Hayward (now Cal State East Bay), and her Ph.D. in Intercultural Communication from Arizona State University. Read more here.
The Board of Trustees at Waubonsee Community College has unanimously selected Dr. Brian Knetl to be their next president. He will be joining Waubonsee Community College in the coming weeks. Dr. Knetl currently serves as Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs at Grand Rapids Community College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Prior to Grand Rapids, he was Associate Provost of Academic Affairs and Dean of Liberal Arts at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois. Dr. Knetl earned a doctorate in Education from Loyola University, Chicago, master’s degree from Texas State University, and bachelor’s degree from Saint Mary’s University. He was a 2018-2019 Aspen Presidential Fellow for Community College Leadership. Read more here.
Eastern Kentucky University has announced the appointment of Dr. Michael (Sean) June as the new Director of the Manufacturing Engineering Program. Dr. June will begin as soon as Monday, December 12, 2022. Dr. June is currently an Associate Professor of Engineering, and the Director of the Gadomski Center for Engineering Innovation at Christian Brothers University, and has been a faculty fellow in the Marshall Space Flight Center for NASA. Dr. June holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in Thermal Sciences from North Carolina State University.