• Amber Hunter was named director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. She is the first African-American to hold the position and is the youngest admissions director in university history. For the past five years she has been associate admissions director. She has been on the admissions staff at the University of Nebraska since 2002.
Hunter is a graduate of the University of Kansas. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Nebraska and is currently pursuing an educational doctorate at UNL.
• Valerie Williams, vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, was named chair-elect of the Association of American Medical Colleges. The AAMC represents all 134 accredited U.S. medical schools as well as 17 medical schools in Canada. Dr. Williams will serve one year as chair-elect and then serve as head of the association in 2013.
Dr. Williams has been a faculty member and administrator at the University of Oklahoma since 1989. Previously she was assistant to the president at the University of Maryland at Baltimore. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Syracuse University and a doctorate in allied health sciences from the University of Oklahoma.
• James W. Harrington Jr. was named vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Washington at Tacoma. He has been a professor of geography at the University of Washington since 1997.
A graduate of Harvard University, Dr. Harrington holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Washington.
• Sean L. Huddleston was named director of intercultural training at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. He is the founder of the Peerless Group, a management consulting firm.
Huddleston is a graduate of Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan.
• Beatrice Forniss is the new president-elect of the Alabama State University National Alumni Association. She is the director of the Resources and Economic Assistance Programs for the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.
Forniss holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Alabama State University.
• Neil Henry, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, has announced he is stepping down to return to full-time teaching. He has led the school first as interim dean and then dean since 2007.
Dean Henry is the former Africa bureau chief for the Washington Post and was a staff writer for Newsweek. He has served on the Berkeley faculty since 1993.
A graduate of Princeton University, Henry earned a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
• William S. Kisaalita was appointed associate director of the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities at the University of Georgia. He is a professor of biological and agricultural engineering at the university.
Professor Kisaalita has been on the faculty at the University of Georgia for 20 years.