Public Institution

Mr. Scott Molander has been appointed as the new President at Dickinson State University (DSU). He will assume his new role as DSU President on July 1, 2025. Mr. Molander is currently Managing Partner of Garage Living & SKINS Compression and an Adjunct Lecturer of Entrepreneurship & Innovation in the Lacy School of Business at Butler University. In 2006, he was a recipient of the North Dakota Business Innovator of the Year Award, and he currently serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of the DSU Heritage Foundation. He earned an A.A. in Business Administration from the University of North Dakota-Williston, a B.S. in Business Administration from Dickinson State University, and an M.B.A. from Indiana State University. Read more.

Dr. L. Beril Toktay has been appointed as the new Executive Director of the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems at Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Toktay will begin her duties on April 1. Dr. Toktay began at the Georgia Institute of Technology as a Visiting Associate Professor in 2004 and has held a number of faculty and administrative roles over the past 20 years.  She is currently the Brady Family Chair in Management and Regents' Professor in the Scheller College of Business and she is the founding Faculty Director of the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business.  She has published extensively on the topics of sustainable operations and supply chain management and she became a Distinguished Fellow of the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (MSOM) Society in 2017. Dr. Toktay holds B.S. degrees in mathematics and industrial engineering from Bogazici University (Istanbul), an M.S. in industrial engineering from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in operations research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Anthony Graham has been appointed as the new Chancellor at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB). He is expected to begin his new role as UAPB Chancellor on July 1, 2025. Dr. Graham is the former Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at Winston-Salem State University, where he also served as Interim Chancellor from 2023 to 2024. He previously served as Dean of the College of Education and Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at North Carolina A&T State University. Prior to his work in higher education, Dr. Graham was a high school English teacher. He has served as the managing editor of the historic peer-review academic journal The Negro Educational Review, and has collaborated with educators and scholars to create initiatives that increase the number of classroom teachers, especially ethnic and racial minority teachers, who enter the teaching profession in under-resourced and hard-to-staff rural and urban schools. Dr. Graham earned a B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.Ed. in Secondary English Education and Ph.D. in Curriculum and Teaching from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Read more.

Mr. Jim Muyo has been appointed as the new Director of Development Communications and Donor Relations at San Francisco State University. Mr. Muyo will begin his position on March 24th. Mr. Muyo comes to SFSU from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, where he served as the Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives. Prior to Stanford, Mr. Muyo was the Director of Communications and Marketing at Saint Joseph Notre Dame High School. Mr. Muyo holds a B.A. in Journalism from San Francisco State University and an MBA from the University of San Francisco.

Dr. Robert Blaine III has been appointed as the new President at University of The Bahamas, effective July 1, 2025. Dr. Blaine currently serves as the Senior Executive and Director of the Center for Leadership, Education, Advancement and Development (LEAD) and the Center for Municipal Practice for the National League of Cities, based in Washington D.C. He brings a wealth of experience in strategic planning, economic development and SACSCOC accreditation. In advancing academic excellence, he has been the driving force behind initiatives that expand access to quality education and forge meaningful partnerships with local and global communities. Dr. Blaine holds a DMA - Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, a Masters in Music - Performance from The Catholic University of America and a Bachelor of Music – Performance from Indiana University. Read more.

Dr. Robert Scott has been appointed as the new president at Albany State University (ASU), effective May 1, 2025. Dr. Scott, who holds a Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology, will return to higher education after almost two decades working in the private sector. He is currently the president of research and development at The Kraft Heinz Co. Dr. Scott has also served in executive roles at Abbott Nutrition and The Coca-Cola Co. He spent his early career teaching and serving as an administrator at Boston College, Spelman College and Norfolk State University. Born in New Jersey and raised in Suffolk, Virginia, Dr. Scott was the first in his family to attend college. He attended Norfolk State University, a historically Black university in Norfolk, Virginia, as a DNIMAS Scholar. The DNIMAS Scholar program, created through a generous gift to the university, addresses the severe shortage of minority scientists in the workforce by attracting and producing undergraduates who can complete graduate degrees in STEM. After earning a biology degree from Norfolk State, he then entered the graduate program at Georgia Tech, with a research focus in cell and molecular biology, and became the first DNIMAS Scholar to receive a Ph.D. After receiving his Ph.D., Dr. Scott became a biology professor at Norfolk State. He later served as an associate dean at both Boston College and Spelman College. In these roles, he gained leadership experience, oversaw curriculum development, secured research funding and mentored future leaders, all while prioritizing student success. Read more.

Dr. Jermaine Whirl has been appointed as the new president at Savannah State University (SSU), effective April 1, 2025. Dr. Whirl, an Aspen Fellow, most recently served as president of Augusta Technical College (ATC), a role he has held since November 2020. Dr. Whirl’s career includes nearly 20 years of service as a faculty member and administrative leader at public colleges and universities in his home state of South Carolina and in Georgia. He has previously worked at several institutions, including Greenville Technical College, Savannah Technical College, Georgia Southern University and East Georgia State University. Dr. Whirl grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, and earned an associate of arts degree at Trident Technical College and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Winthrop University. He holds an MBA in business administration from Charleston Southern University, an M.Ed. in adult education and community leadership from Armstrong State University (now Georgia Southern University) and an Ed.D. in organizational leadership from Valdosta State University. Read more.

Mr. Shane Smeed has been appointed as the new President at Utah Tech University. Mr. Smeed, a Utah native, has served as president of Park University in Missouri since November 2020 and brings over 25 years of experience in higher education to the new role.  He began his tenure with Park University in 2015, where he served as the Vice President of Enrollment and Student Services, then became the Chief Operating Officer in 2016, and ascended to the Presidency in 2020. He holds a Master of Arts degree in student personnel administration from Saint Louis University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Keller Graduate School of Management. Read more.

Dr. Eileen Strempel has been appointed as the new Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost at the University of San Diego, effective July 1, 2025. Dr. Strempel comes to USD following her tenure as the Inaugural Dean of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, with faculty appointments in both the School of Music and the School of Education and Information Studies. She received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, her doctorate from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and has completed Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management. Dr. Strempel has served both as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow and a 2022-23 Fellow in the AGB Institute for Leadership and Governance in Higher Education. Especially dedicated to the mentorship and sponsorship of women in leadership, she is a contributing author in the newly released book, Thriving as a Woman in Leadership in Higher Education. Dr. Strempel is a noted international opera singer and was honored as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Her musical interests focus on the compositions of women composers, and the breadth of her musical scholarly work includes eight recordings, dozens of commissions, articles, and edited volumes that examine the political, social, and musical contexts of the most influential female composers of our time. Read more.

Dr. Sergio Perez has been appointed as the new Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Southern Connecticut State University. Dr. Perez has served as the College Diversity Officer at Loras College since 2020, where he played a key role in integrating DEI principles throughout the institution. He holds an Ed.D. from Edgewood College in Higher Education and Leadership Studies and a Master of Science in Education in Student Affairs Administration from The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Dr. Perez will begin his duties at Southern Connecticut in late May.