Public Institution

The New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has selected Dr. John Pelesko to serve as its next provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. Dr. Pelesko, currently the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Delaware (UD), will start on August 1, 2023. He brings rich experience to the role, having served as a professor, department chair, associate dean, interim dean and dean at UD, where he has worked since 2002. In four years as dean, he led UD’s largest and most diverse college, with 8,000 students and an annual budget of about $150 million. During that period, the college developed new and innovative academic programs that led to new revenue and resource opportunities and enabled Delaware to invest in faculty and build an environment that encourages increased research grant activity. Sponsored expenditures in the College of Arts and Sciences have grown by more than 31% during his tenure. Before UD, Pelesko taught mathematics at Georgia Institute of Technology and computing and mathematical sciences at California Institute of Technology. He earned a Ph.D. in mathematical sciences from NJIT and a B.S. in Pure Mathematics from Boston University. Read more here.

The Portland State University Board of Trustees has appointed Dr. Ann Cudd as the 11th President of Portland State University, effective August 1, 2023. Dr. Cudd has been serving as Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh since September 2018.  Prior to her service at Pitt, she served as Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at Boston University. Dr. Cudd holds a PhD in Philosophy and MA’s in both Economic and Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA in Mathematics and Philosophy from Swarthmore College. Read more here.

Ms. Marcelyn Potter has been selected as the new Senior Director of Development, Lam Family College of Business, at San Francisco State University. She will begin her role on March 13, 2023. Ms. Potter most recently served as the Executive Director of Development, Leadership Strategy and Engagement, at the University of California, San Diego, where she shaped the framework for the $5 million naming of the Pacific Center for Asset Management and formed the inaugural regional program toward achievement of the $3 billion campaign. Prior to that, she was the Senior Director of Development, Regional Giving, at the University of California, Los Angeles.  Ms. Potter received her bachelor’s degree in marketing from Michigan State University.

Dr. Karmen Ten Napel has been appointed Central College's Vice President for Student Development and Dean of Students. She will join Central College on Thursday, June 1, 2023. Dr. Ten Napel has served as the dean of students at Morningside University in Sioux City since 2014 and as associate vice president for student life and Title IX coordinator since 2019. At Morningside, Dr. Ten Napel’s student services portfolio included residence life, campus ministries, personal counseling, student health, diversity and inclusion, dining, student crises, conduct issues, strategic planning and work dedicated to retention, Title IX, training and student and parent communication. She led her campus through the COVID-19 pandemic and has overhauled policies and streamlined processes to support students in a more inclusive way.  Dr. Ten Napel is a member of the Association of Title IX Administrators, on the Siouxland steering committee of Iowa Women Lead Change and a member of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. She is a two-time recipient of Morningside’s Thomas S. Thompson Staff Excellence Award. She received her Bachelor of Arts from South Dakota State University, Master of Science in education from Southwest Minnesota State University and Doctor of Education in adult and higher education administration from the University of South Dakota. Read more here.

The University of Alaska System has announced the appointment of Luke Fulp as the Chief Financial Officer. Fulp has extensive financial management and leadership experience in academic settings. For more than a decade he has served as the Deputy Superintendent of Business and Operations for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District. Previously he served as Director of Finance for the Kodiak School District and Purchasing & Accounts Payable Supervisor at the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Fulp holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Alaska Southeast. He’s a certified Administrator of School Finances and Operations through the Association of School Business Officials International, and a certified public accountant (CPA) candidate. 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.

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.

Dr. Brent Thomas has been appointed as the new Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs of Emporia State University. Dr. Thomas has ascended the ranks at Emporia State having first joined the University in 2006 when he was hired as an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. In 2014, he was appointed as the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and since September 2022 has been serving as the Interim Provost. Dr. Thomas began his career at Emporia State in 2006 after earning his Ph.D. in biological sciences from Mississippi State University and serving on faculty at University of South Carolina Upstate.  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.