Laurie Leshin to Blast Off from Worcester to California
By John O. Harney
Comings and Goings …
Laurie Leshin
Worcester Polytechnic Institute President Laurie Leshin was named director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the California lab affiliated with NASA. A geochemist and space scientist, Leshin was the first woman to lead WPI and will be the first woman to lead the Jet Propulsion Laboratory run by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Leshin will leave the Worcester post at the end of this academic year.
Western New England University appointed Kristine C. Goodwin as the university’s vice president of student affairs. An attorney who has held posts at Providence College, College of the Holy Cross and Connecticut College, Goodwin will succeed Bryan Gross, who will return to his previous position as vice president for enrollment management and marketing.
Roger Williams University appointed Richard Godfrey as the inaugural executive director of the university’s new interdisciplinary Real Estate Program, which will integrate architecture, historic preservation, construction management, engineering, business and law. Godfrey is the former executive director of Rhode Island Housing and past president of the National Council of State Housing Agencies.
Josh Geballe, a former IBM executive and tech entrepreneur, announced he will leave his posts as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Administrative Services and the state’s chief operating officer, to become the first senior associate provost for entrepreneurship and innovation at Yale University.