Colleges and Universities Appoint Five African Americans to Administrative Positions

Kimberly D. Whitehead was appointed senior vice president for strategy and chief of staff at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York. She has been serving as vice president and chief of staff for the president at the University of Maine. She is the former interim provost at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Dr. Whitehead is a graduate of Norfolk State University in Virginia, where she majored in biology. She earned a Ph.D. in genetics from North Carolina State University.

Cleo Rucker was promoted to chief human resources officer at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. For the past two years, Rucker has served as senior director of Human Resources Consulting, Employee and Labor Relations at the university. He joined the staff at the university in 2011.

Rucker is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He earned a law degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kimberly Shiner was named vice president for advancement and communications at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, effective August 1. She was the associate vice president for university advancement at California State University, San Bernardino.

Shiner holds a  bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in public administration from California State University, Northridge.

Kenneth Strother Jr. has been named assistant vice president for public safety at Princeton University in New Jersey. He has been serving as director of operations in the department of public safety at the university. Before joining Princeton in 2019, Strother served as station commander for The Pennsylvania State University Police and Public Safety at the Abington campus.

Strother earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Thomas Edison State University in New Jersey and a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Oklahoma.

Brian Gibson has been named the chief global officer at the University of Utah. He has been serving as executive director of George Mason University’s Global Education Office. Earlier, in his career, Dr. Gibson was assistant dean for comparative and international programs at Columbia University.

Dr. Gibson earned a bachelor’s degree in international economics and a juris doctorate from Georgetown University. He holds a master’s degree from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam.

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