Top 25 Women in Higher Education

 

Appointed to her post in January of this year as Tennessee State University’s eighth president, Dr. Glenda Baskin Glover previously served as the dean of the School of Business at Jackson State University, a position she held since 1994. While at Jackson State, she led the College of Business to implement programs leading up through the Ph.D. degree.
Her guidance has included the development of retention strategies and ensuring compliance with accreditation standards. She played an important role in fundraising for the college, and spearheaded the implementation of online learning programs, developed the university’s internal fiscal accountability measures and served as a key liaison to local and national elected officials. Glover earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from TSU in 1974, an M.B.A. from Clark Atlanta University in 1976, a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1994, and her Ph.D. in business economics and policy from George Washington University in 1990.

 

Dr. Shirley Malcom is head of the Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Malcom serves on several boards — including the Heinz Endowments and the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment — and is an honorary trustee of the American Museum of Natural History. In 2006, she was named co-chair of the National Science Board Commission on 21st Century Education in STEM. She serves as a regent of Morgan State University and as a trustee of Caltech. In addition, she has chaired a number of national committees addressing education reform and access to scientific and technical education, careers and literacy. Malcom received her doctorate in ecology from Pennsylvania State University, her master’s degree in zoology from the University of California, Los Angeles and her bachelor’s degree with distinction in zoology from the University of Washington. In 2003, Malcom received the Public Welfare Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, the highest award given by the academy.

 

Deborah W. Martinez has extensive experience with development and management of continuing education and professional development programs. She has previously held executive positions with the Advancing Hispanic Excellence in Technology, Engineering, Math and Science, the Society of American Military Engineers and the American Dental Education Association and was executive director of the Society of Geriatric Cardiology. Recently, Martinez collaborated and implemented three major initiatives related to ongoing training in engineering. They include an online collegiate program for non-commissioned officers to assist their pursuit of engineering degrees, an international webinar program providing information to educate both military and civilian personnel about new and innovative programs and a Deans of Universities Roundtable to address financial opportunities and other means of support for underrepresented students. She is co-author of numerous publications on topics ranging from geriatric cardiology to curriculum development. Martinez is a graduate of Howard University.

 

When Dr. Cassandra Manuelito-Kerkvliet was chosen as president of Antioch University Seattle in 2007, she became the first American Indian woman to ascend to the presidency of an accredited university outside the tribal college system. Prior to her appointment in Seattle, Manuelito-Kerkvliet served as the first woman president of Diné College, the first tribally-controlled community college, located on the Navajo reservation in Tsaile, Ariz. At Oregon State University, she founded and directed the Indian Education Office. She has worked in various student services and counseling positions at the University of Oregon, University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, University of Wyoming and Montana State University. She serves on the Seattle Community Colleges Chancellor’s Advisory Council. Manuelito-Kerkvliet is a member of the executive board of Washington State Campus Compact and the Board of Directors of the Higher Education Resource Services and the Washington Women’s Foundation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social work, a master’s in counselor education and a Ph.D. in educational policy and management with a specialization in higher education administration.

 

Dr. Anne S. Pruitt-Logan is professor emerita of educational policy and leadership at the Ohio State University. Prior to joining the Ohio State faculty in 1979, becoming the university’s first African-American woman full professor, she served as professor of education at Case Western Reserve University and previously in positions as dean of students and dean of women at Fisk University and Albany (Ga.) State College. Following her 1995 retirement from Ohio State, she served for eight years at the Council of Graduate Schools as dean in residence, then scholar in residence. Th roughout her career, she has focused on improving access to education for underserved populations. From 1979 to 1985, as associate dean of the Ohio State Graduate School, she worked to increase federal support for minorities and women to enter nontraditional fields such as engineering and mathematics. She also held major consultancies with the Southern Regional Education Board and the Southern Education Foundation to dismantle the dual segregated system of higher education.

 

Beverly Ledbetter serves as vice president and general counsel for Brown University. Prior to becoming general counsel at Brown University, she was legal counsel at the University of Oklahoma and adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Law and the Center for Higher Education, College of Education. Ledbetter has taught law and higher education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has been on the faculty of the Higher Education Resource Services Programs at Wellesley and Bryn Mawr, the Western Association of College and University Business Officers Business Management Institute and the College Business Management Institute at the University of Kentucky. She also serves on the International Advisory Board at the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at the Stetson University College of Law. Ledbetter received a bachelor’s degree from Howard University and a J.D. from the University of Colorado. A past president of the National Association of College & University Attorneys, former counsel to the Educational Advancement Foundation, past-secretary of the Board of Directors of the National Association of College and University Business Officers, Ledbetter is a member of the Board of Fellows of the Rhode Island Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

 

Dr. Condoleezza Rice has returned to the professorate at Stanford
University, leveraging her experience as secretary of state to guide students in political economy courses. From January 2005-2009, Rice served as the 66th secretary of state of the United States, the second woman and first African-American woman to hold the post. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s national security adviser from January 2001-2005, the first woman to hold the position. Rice served as Stanford University’s provost from 1993-1999, during which time she was the institution’s chief budget and academic officer. In 1997, she also served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the military. Rice earned her bachelor’s degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver, her master’s from the University of Notre Dame and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

 

As president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Dr. Carol Geary Schneider and AAC&U launched Liberal Education and America’s Promise, a public advocacy and campus action initiative designed to engage students and the public with what really matters in a college education for the 21st century. AAC&U has become widely recognized as both a voice and force for strengthening the quality of student learning in college for all students and especially those historically underserved in U.S. higher education; it is working with hundreds of colleges and universities and numerous state systems to expand the benefits of liberal education across the entire curriculum, through new integration between the core outlines of liberal education and student learning in their major fields. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a bachelor’s degree in history. She studied at the University of London’s Institute for Historical Research and earned a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University.

 

As founder and director of the Hispanic Outreach and Leadership  program at Armstrong Atlantic State University (HOLA), Melody Rodriguez has led an effort to increase the school’s Hispanic population by 37 percent. She is known as a no-nonsense supporter of Latinos in higher education. She is dedicated to recruiting and counseling students, fundraising and organizing on-campus festivals that celebrate Latino culture. Rodriguez holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master of education degree in Adult Education, both from Armstrong Atlantic State University.

 

As director of athletics, Dr. Tamica Smith-Jones has helped Clark Atlanta student-athletes demonstrate immediate success in the classroom, community and on competition fields. Under her watch, retention and graduation rates have steadily been on the rise. In spring 2011 and 2013, more than 40 percent of its scholar-athletes who achieved a 3.0 semester GPA and higher were honored. Smith-Jones serves as president/founder of TJ Sports Complete, Inc., a nonprofi t aimed at exposing parents and youth to the resources they need to transition to college. She earned a bachelor’s in business administration from Alabama A&M University, a master’s in public policy from Savannah State University and a Ph.D. in business administration from Kennedy-Western University.

 

Dr. Francine G. McNairy retired January 26 from the presidency at Millersville University, a post she had held since 2003. McNairy served as the chief executive officer with oversight of a $100 million budget, 1,000 employees, and 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Prior to her appointment as president, McNairy served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Millersville University since August 1994.
During her tenure as president, a strategic planning process led to a new vision statement, a redirection of the university’s institutional identity program, a redesign of the budget process to encourage greater constituent participation, a focus on securing new revenue sources and the strategic process of aligning budget priorities with institutional priorities and goals. She has championed an increase in the diversity of the faculty and the student body and oversaw the completion of a $40 million capital campaign, as well as the Soar to Greatness campaign, which garnered $88 million.
McNairy holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology, a master’s degree in social work, and a Ph.D. in speech rhetoric/communication with emphasis on interpersonal and small group communication from the University of Pittsburgh. She is also an alumna of the Harvard University Institute for Educational Management.

 

A veteran educator with more than 20 years of experience in secondary and post-secondary education, Dr. Alvetta Peterman Thomas is the only African-American woman leading a technical college in Georgia and the fifth such president in the history of Atlanta Technical College. Under Thomas’ leadership, enrollment at the college has increased to nearly 5,000 students per semester, and the career placement rate has remained above 98 percent. Among her many accolades, she has been honored by the National Science Foundation, U.S. House of Representatives and the DTAE/UGA Community and Technical College Leadership Initiative, of which she was a first-cohort graduate. She has a bachelor’s from Alabama State, a master’s in political science from Clark Atlanta University and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Georgia.

 

Since Dr. Jerry Sue Thornton took the helm in 1992, Cuyahoga Community College has become a leader in educational innovation, workforce training and economic development. She is recognized as “one of the 50 most influential people in Northeast Ohio.” She works internationally to help develop the community college concept in the Netherlands, China, United Kingdom, Jordon and Qatar, and in the spring of 2011, Thornton was appointed co-chair of the 21st Century Commission on the Future of Community Colleges, a national task force charged with setting a bold vision for the future priorities of these institutions. Recognized with many accolades, she earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Murray State University (Ky.) and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. She is also a graduate of Harvard’s Institute for the Management of Lifelong Education. She holds honorary doctorates from the College of St. Catherine (Minn.); Youngstown State University, Cleveland State University, the University of Toledo and Baldwin Wallace College, all of which are located in the state of Ohio.

 

Since taking office in 2008, Dr. Pamela Trotman Reid has worked to build upon the university’s reputation for academic excellence and ensure its commitment to integrity, women’s leadership and service. She initiated and successfully launched its first professional doctoral program. Under her leadership, the size of the graduate program in education tripled with the introduction of off -site classes throughout Connecticut, the program for adult learners was refocused, and undergraduate women’s programs have gained increased recognition for excellence and student success. Among the projects she developed, she is most proud of a math and technology enrichment program for middle school girls, which began in Detroit. Th e program, Gaining Options: Girls Investigate Real Life (GO-GIRL), was also replicated in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, and most recently, in West Hartford.
She is nationally-known as a scholar in the area of gender and racial issues, and she has numerous published book chapters and articles in psychological journals. A fellow of the American Psychological Association, Reid has held elected offices in that organization. Reid has a bachelor’s from Howard University, a master’s from Temple University and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.