Comings and Goings …
Matthew Derr
Sterling College announced that President Matthew Derr will step down from the role in October. The trustees named Lori Collins-Hall, a former Antioch College provost and Teagle Scholar who joined Sterling in March, to be interim president. An avid birder, Derr will pursue the American Birding Association Big Year challenge to record as many native bird sightings as possible in the U.S. and Canada in 2022.
Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown resigned as president, CEO and dean of the faculty of New England Law, posts he had held at the Boston school since January. Brown’s vision of the future of the law school “differs with that of the Board of Directors,” according to a letter obtained by the Boston Globe. A former Massachusetts resident, Brown won an upset victory in 2010 but lost to Elizabeth Warren in 2012, then moved to New Hampshire, where he lost in a 2014 run against Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. After endorsing Donald Trump for president in 2016, Brown was appointed U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa.
The University of Bridgeport Board of Trustees appointed Goodwin University Provost and Dean of Faculty Danielle Wilken as the university’s 12th president. The University of Bridgeport recently won approval to function as an independent institution with its own leadership and board of trustees under the ownership and operation of Goodwin.
Harvard University Vice Provost for Research Richard McCullough was named the 16th president of Florida State University, succeeding John Thrasher, who will retire after serving as president since 2014.
Mitchell College appointed Elizabeth Ann (Betsy) Beaulieu as vice president of academic affairs. Beaulieu most recently served as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of New Haven and, before that, was founding dean of the Core Division at Champlain College in Vermont.
Robert Chambers, recent vice president for community, government and auxiliary relations at Berklee College of Music, was named chief of staff and assistant to Mary Grant, who became president of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in May. Chambers worked at MassArt from 1997 to 2014 in roles ranging from director of housing and residence life to assistant to the president for government and community relations.
Massachusetts College of Art and Design General Counsel Gina Yarbrough was named general counsel for the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges, succeeding Kenneth Tashjy, who retired.
The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) named Sameer Gadkaree as its new president and CEO, starting Oct. 1. Gadkaree recently led the Joyce Foundation’s grantmaking on higher education and the future of work.
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