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maricopa.edu

The Maricopa Community Colleges are Proud to Congratulate

Chandler-Gilbert | Estrella Mountain | GateWay | Glendale | Mesa | Paradise Valley | Phoenix | Rio Salado Scottsdale | South Mountain | Maricopa Corporate College | Maricopa Skill Center | SouthWest Skill CenterThe Maricopa County Community College District is an EEO/AA institution and an equal opportunity employer of protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

Dr. Maria Harper-MarinickExecutive Vice Chancellor and ProvostMaricopa County Community College District

for being honored for one of the Leading Women in Education Award

and

Dr. Belle WheelanPresident, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges

for being honored with the

John Hope Franklin AwardDr. Maria Harper-Marinick

We salute and honor a diverse group of women who have made significant contributions in higher education.

Compiled by Cassandra West

Women’s History Month

Top 25 Women in Higher

Education

Women’s History Month

Top 25 Women in Higher

Education

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Dr. Gayle Barge Vice President of Institutional AdvancementBellevue CollegeBarge is recognized as an expert

on African-American women and work-life balance. In March 2015, she will present at the Oxford Women’s Leadership Symposium in Oxford, England. Barge also has more than 30 years’ experi-ence in marketing, communica-tions and public affairs positions. Previously, she was the director

of university public relations at Central State University in Ohio.

Dr. Joanne Berger-Sweeney PresidentTrinity CollegeThe first African-American and first woman to be named president of Trinity College, Berger-Sweeney holds a Ph.D. in neurotoxicology and was dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University. She is the former Allene Lummis Russell Professor of Neuroscience and

associate dean at Wellesley College. Berger-Sweeney is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Trinity College congratulates President Joanne Berger-Sweeney on her selection by Diverse as one of the top 25 outstanding women

in higher education.

www.trincoll.edu

Spelman College Dr. Belle WheelanPresidentSouthern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges

Recipient of the John Hope Franklin Award

www.spelman.edu @Spelman/ #Spelman

Michelle Alexander Associate Professor of LawMoritz College of Law, The Ohio State UniversityAlexander is a civil rights lawyer, legal scholar and writer. She’s a

2005 winner of a Soros Justice Fellowship, which supported the writing of  The New Jim Crow, a scholarly examination of mass incarceration in the United States. She holds a dual appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University. One of her passions is exposing and challenging racial bias in the criminal justice system.

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Dr. Jhan Doughty Berry Executive Director, Talent Development & DiversityEducational Testing ServiceIn her current role at Educational Testing Service (ETS), Berry has established partnerships with universities across the country to provide opportunities for students to work on business-driven projects at ETS. She has also worked with Howard University to establish a unique collaborative. Formerly, Berry was the se-nior director for institutional diversity and an adjunct assistant professor of educational psychology and psychology at Miami University in Ohio. While there, she created and implemented retention initiatives for underrepresented students.

Michele Bobadilla Senior Associate Vice President for Outreach Services and Community Engagement, Vice Provost for Hispanic Student SuccessThe University of Texas at ArlingtonBobadilla has served on the boards of 25 organizations in

North Texas and more than 50 committees addressing the needs of the community. She is co-founder and chair of University Crossroads, a UT Arlington outreach, diversity and community engagement initiative. Aside from their data-driven, award-winning SAT Math Prep courses, the organization promotes college access through academic awareness and readiness involving the entire family. Bobadilla also is a former vice chair of the National League of United Latin American Citizens’ Education Commission.

Dr. Norma E. Cantú Professor Emeritus of English, The University of Texas at San Antonio and Professor, Latina/o Studies and English, Univer-sity of Missouri-Kansas CityA professor emeritus of English at The University of Texas

at San Antonio, Cantú is currently a professor of Latina/o studies and English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. In 2012, she was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters, and she was honored with the Nebrija Creative Writing Fellow-ship from the Insti-tuto Franklin at the Universidad de Al-calá de Henares in Spain. Cantú is also on the board of the American Folklore Society. Cantú edits the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo: Borderlands Culture and Tradi-tions book series for Texas A&M Uni-versity Press.

25Leading Womenin Higher Education

PALM BEACH STATE COLLEGEFlorida’s first public community college www.PalmBeachState.edu

Palm Beach State College salutes Dr. Maria M. Vallejo,

Lake Worth campus provost, a passionate, trailblazing educator

who continues to inspire and pave the way for others.

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assistant secretary to the assistant secretary-Indian aff airs for policy and economic development in the U.S. Department of the Interior, deputy associate director of intergovernmental af-fairs and associate director of public engagement. She facilitates communication between tribal nations and the White House, and is imperative to the annual White House Tribal Nations Conferences.

Dr. R. Barbara GitensteinPresidentThe College of New JerseyAn active scholar with a fo-

cus on Jewish and American literature and past chair of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Gitenstein has more than three decades’ experience as a college profes-sor and administrator. She is the fi rst woman president of Th e College of New Jersey in its 160-year history. Giten-stein, who began her career as an assistant professor of

English at Central Missouri State University, has also been an associate provost at the State University of New York at Oswego and provost at Drake University.

Dr. Farah Jasmine Griffi n William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American StudiesColumbia UniversityGriffi n has served as director of the Institute for Research in

African-American Studies at Columbia University and won a Distinguished Faculty Award from Columbia. She is the editor of numerous collections of letters and essays, and is the author of Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics Dur-ing World War II. Griffi n’s writings have appeared in Th e New York Times, Th e Guardian, Harper’s Bazaar, Callaloo and Afri-can American Review, and she is also a recurrent commentator on WNPR.

Morehouse College Salutes Dr. Belle S. Wheelan

As president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, every day you ensure that colleges are due their accreditation only when they meet the needs of today’s college students. Today, we salute you for safeguarding the excellence of our schools, and for your remarkable 40-year career as a pioneering educator who has shattered gender and racial barriers. In saluting you, we’re doing what you do every day: giving credit where credit is due.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

Connect with us on

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Dr. Maria Harper-MarinickExecutive Vice Chancellor and ProvostMaricopa County Community College DistrictHarper-Marinick has led ini-tiatives to enhance access and increase student success, and build the stature and recogni-tion of the Maricopa County Community College District. She serves on numerous boards and councils, including chair of the federal Advisory Committee on Student Finan-cial Assistance. Originally from the Dominican Republic, Harper-Marinick came to Arizona State University as a Fulbright Scholar in 1982. She is president-elect of the National Community Col-lege Hispanic Council.

Dr. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham Victor S. Thomas Professor of His-tory and of African and African American StudiesHarvard UniversityHigginbotham was chair of Harvard

University’s Department of African and African American Studies from 2006 to 2013. In 2013, she was pre-sented with the James W.C. Penning-ton Award from the University of Heidelberg Faculty of Th eology and Heidelberg Center for American Stud-

ies. Th e Duke University School of Law invited Higginbotham to be the inaugural John Hope Franklin Professor of American Legal History, and she held this position for the academic year 2010-11. Before coming to Harvard in 1993, she taught full time at Dartmouth, the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. N. Gerry House President and CEOInstitute for Student AchievementHouse served as a variety of edu-

cational positions, including super-intendent, in Memphis, Tennessee, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, before joining the Institute for Stu-dent Achievement. She has served on the board of directors of the Educational Testing Service, Th e Woodrow Wilson National Fellow-ship Foundation board of directors and the advisory board for the Na-tional Center for the Study of Privatization in Education. House is also on the board of trustees of Adelphi University.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Carla Wilson’s leadership and vision for student success make the

University of Missouri-Kansas Cityand the Department of Athletics

proud. She earned this honor from Diverse magazine

through her commitment to athletic and

academic excellence.

UMKC Athletics Director Carla Wilson

Top 25 Outstanding Females in Higher Education

From all of us at ACT and the ACT Board of Directors.

We appreciate your tireless efforts to improve education for all students.

Congratulations on this special recognition of your lifelong commitment to others.

Belle.Thank you,

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Dr. Debra Saunders-White ChancellorNorth Carolina Central UniversitySaunders-White became the 11th

chancellor of North Carolina Cen-tral University in 2013. Previously, she was acting assistant secretary for the Offi ce of Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Saunders-White has also been the assistant provost for technology and vice president for technology and chief information offi cer at Hampton University in Virginia. In 2011, the White House appointed her deputy assistant secretary for higher educa-tion programs in the U.S. Department of Education

Wendy B. Scott DeanMississippi College School of LawA graduate of Harvard University and New York Univer-

sity School of Law, Scott is the fi rst African-American to lead the Mississippi College School of Law. She previously taught and held administra-tive roles at North Carolina Central University School of Law and Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. Scott’s scholarship focuses on constitutional theory and school desegregation, and is recognized for her work on the de-segregation of public colleges and universities.

Dr. Kelly MackVice President for Undergraduate STEM Education and Executive Director, Project KaleidoscopeAssociation of American Colleges & UniversitiesPrior to joining the Association of American Colleges & Universities, Mack was senior program director

for the National Science Foundation ADVANCE Program and a professor of biology at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.  She earned a doctorate in physiology from Howard University, and has con-ducted signifi cant cancer research. Mack was a member of the National Institutes of Health’s Division of Training, Workforce Development, and Diversity review subcommittee.

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Dr. Margaret D. StetzMae and Robert Carter Professor of Women’s Studies, Professor of HumanitiesUniversity of Delaware

Before joining the University of Delaware faculty, Stetz, an expert in women and gender studies, taught at the University of Virginia and Georgetown University. Her teaching areas include women and material culture, women’s representa-tions of war, women’s comedy and late-Victorian feminism. She is the author of numerous books, including Facing the Late Victorians  and Gender and the London Theatre (1880-1920). She is a prolific essay and review writer and has curated several major exhibitions.

Dr. María M. Vallejo Lake Worth Campus ProvostPalm Beach State CollegeVallejo has spent more than 30 years in higher education, work-

ing as an administrator at community colleges in New York and New Jersey, as well as at four-year colleges and universities. She has offered advocacy and support to organizations such as

ASPIRA of Florida, an em-powerment organization for young Latinos. She is a past president of the National Community College His-panic Council (NCCHC) and is currently on the na-tional advisory board for the NCCHC Leadership Fel-lows Program.

Carla Wilson Director of AthleticsUniversity of Missouri-Kansas CityWilson is the first-ever female

and minority director of athletics at the University of Missouri-Kan-sas City, and was the only female athletics director in the Western Athletic Conference at the time of her appointment. The National Association of Collegiate Women

Athletic Administrators honored her as Division I Administra-tor of the Year in 2012. Before becoming athletic director, Wil-son was the senior associate athletics director for business and

“Making Life Better” Kansas City Kansas Community College

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administration and senior woman administrator. She is a 2010 graduate of the NCAA Fellows Leadership Development Pro-gram.

Dr. Kathleen Wong(Lau) DirectorSouthwest Center for Human Relations Studies, University of Oklahoma Outreach, University of OklahomaTh e daughter of working-

class Hong Kong immi-grants, Kathleen Wong(Lau) has experience in inter-cultural and diversity con-sulting and training in the higher education, nonprofi t and corporate sectors. She has been on the faculty of

the School of Communication at Western Michigan University and a consultant to the dean of the College of Veterinary Medi-cine at Michigan State University. Wong(Lau) served on the board of Campus Women Lead, a multicultural women’s leader-ship organization created by AAC&U. She is currently director

of the National Conference on Race and Ethnic-ity in Higher Edu-cation.

Dr. Xiaoming Xi Senior DirectorCenter for English Language Learning and Assessment, Educational Testing ServiceXi leads research to advance English language learning and

assessment for learners worldwide, and research that supports English language assessments such as the TOEFL. She publishes extensively on validity and fairness issues in the broader context of test use, test validation methods and automated scoring of speech. Xi won the 2005 International Language Testing Asso-ciation (ILTA) Best Language Testing Paper Award and serves on the editorial boards of Language Testing and Language Assess-ment Quarterly. She received a Ph.D. in second/foreign language assessment from the University of California, Los Angeles. D