Four African Americans Named to New Administrative Posts in Higher Education

Qiana Watson was appointed deputy legal counsel and labor relations director at York College of the City University of New York. She recently gave the keynote address at the annual University General Counsel Conference in Las Vegas.

Watson is a graduate of St. Joseph’s College in New York and the Temple University School of Law in Philadelphia.

Lawrence A. Q. Burnley was named the inaugural vice president for diversity and inclusion at the University of Dayton in Ohio. He has been serving as associate vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion, chief diversity officer, and an assistant professor of history at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington.

Dr. Burnley is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. He holds a master of divinity degree from the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis and a doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania.

Stacey Nickson was appointed the inaugural director of the Center for Educational Outreach and Engagement at Auburn University in Alabama. She has been serving as director of K-12 outreach initiatives at the university.

Dr. Nickson is a graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington. She holds a doctoral degree from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Gerald Hector was named vice president for financial affairs at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, effective August 1. He has been serving as vice president for finance and administration at Ithaca College. He is the former vice president for business and finance at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Hector is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he majored in business administration. He is pursuing a master’s degree in Christian thought from the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte.