More Leadership Innovations
Posted March 15, 2022
By John O. Harney
Comings and Goings …
James W. “Jim” Dean Jr.
In another example of increasingly common leadership innovations in higher education, University of New Hampshire President James W. “Jim” Dean Jr. will take on the additional role of interim chancellor of the University System of New Hampshire, working with the presidents of Keene State College and Plymouth State University to advance the interests of the overall university system.
He will play the dual roles until July 2024, when trustees will evaluate the new arrangement. The chancellor role has been vacant since former NEBHE Chair and frequent NEJHE contributor Todd J. Leach left the post in June.
Assumption University President Francesco Cesareo announced he will retire at the end of this academic year after 15 years leading the Worcester Catholic institution, which transitioned from a college to a university with five separate colleges during his presidency.
In a 2007 NEJHE piece, Cesareo explored the challenge of maintaining the church’s stance on abortion, homosexuality and embryonic stem-cell research on campuses marked by pluralism.
Nichols College appointed Bryant University dean and professor Daniel Borgia as the Dudley, Mass. college’s new provost, succeeding Mauri Pelto, who is becoming associate provost and special advisor to the president for accreditation and assessment at Nichols.
Borgia is a professor of finance at Bryant University-BITZH, a joint cooperative program between the Beijing Institute of Technology Zhuhai and Bryant University in Rhode Island. He is a former China Fulbright Scholar and has written extensively about international business and finance. Last spring, Nichols named Bryant’s then-Provost Glenn Sulmasy as its new president.
Former Bridgewater State University corporate relations officer Corey Bowdre joined Lasell University as corporate engagement officer. Previously, Bowdre was senior manager for new business development and premium sales for the Boston Red Sox.
Three of the four managers in Burlington, Vt.’s Office of Racial Equity, Inclusion and Belonging, Skyler Nash, Nyla Ruiz and Marielle Matthews, resigned.
Less than a month earlier, the department’s leader, Tyeastia Green announced she was leaving her post.
The department’s fourth manager, Belan Antensaye, has not resigned. Green will be replaced by Phet Keomanyvanh, an economic equity analyst in city’s Community and Economic Development Office, as acting director. Some similar diversity efforts in New England have also hit snags.
In Worcester, Mass., Chief Diversity Officer Stephanie Williams announced she was moving on in her career, the third chief diversity officer to come and go in the city since the position was created in 2016.
In June, half of the New Hampshire’s Governor’s Advisory Council on Diversity and Inclusion resigned in protest.
Rachel Skerritt announced she will step down at the end of the school year after five years leading Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in America. In 2017, Skerritt became the first person of color to lead the school founded in 1635
Natural Resources Council of Maine CEO Lisa Pohlmann announced she will step down after more than a decade leading the environmental organization. She previously held leadership positions at the Maine Center for Economic Policy and New Hope for Women.