Former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift to Hand Over Reins as LearnLaunch Prez; NACUBO and Nellie Mae Ed Foundation Leaders also Plan to Step Down
By John O. Harney
Comings and Goings …
JANE SWIFT
LearnLaunch Executive Director and President Jane Swift announced she will step away from the day-to-day leadership of the nonprofit educational technology group she has led since 2019 and become its board president and senior advisor.
She will be succeeded as executive director by Kate Donaghey, who has served as executive vice president of policy at LearnLaunch and was budget & policy director for Massachusetts Sen. Joan M. Menard, when Menard was assistant majority leader and chair of NEBHE.
Swift spent 15 years in Massachusetts state government as a state senator, lieutenant governor and governor from 2001 to 2003. For several years, NEJHE was a media sponsor of major LearnLaunch conferences and featured a 2020 Q&A with Swift about her insights on higher education and technology.
The LearnLaunch Board will continue to be chaired by education innovator Michael Horn.
National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) President and CEO Susan Whealler announced she will retire at the end of this month to focus on her health.
The first female CEO of the national higher ed financial group, Whealler shared insights about higher education alliances and mergers on an expert panel NEBHE convened in 2019 about “The Future of Higher Education and the Economy: Lessons Learned from the Last Recession.”
GISLAINE N. NGOUNOU
Nellie Mae Education Foundation Interim President and CEO Gislaine N. Ngounou said she will leave the foundation in December.
Among other things, she implemented the foundation’s new strategy focused on advancing racial equity in public education and secured investment, aimed at addressing anti-Black racism and Covid-19 relief efforts.
Before joining the foundation, Ngounou was the chief program officer for Virginia-based Phi Delta Kappa International, a professional organization for educators. She also previously worked for Hartford Public Schools.
Brian Norman, the inaugural dean of the Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts and Humanities at Simmons University, was named vice president for academic affairs at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. A visiting practitioner at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Norman has taught and published on African American and 20th century literature.
Jeannine Diddle Uzzi, recently provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Southern Maine, was named the first institutional vice president of academic affairs at Adler University, where she will oversee the Adler’s Chicago, Vancouver and online campuses.
Sacred Heart University named Maurice Nelson as its new chief diversity & inclusion officer. Nelson is the former director of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Yale School of Nursing.
Bates College appointed Tracey A. Reeves, a former Washington Post reporter and current associate vice president for research and academic communications at Georgia Institute of Technology, to be vice president for communications and marketing at the private Maine college, effective Sept. 12.
Diana Szynal began as president of the Springfield Regional Chamber in Massachusetts, after serving as executive director of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce and a municipal specialist for the Hampshire Council of Governments.