JBHE: Latest News for 12/9/10

Appointments, Promotions, and Resignations

• Mary Evans Sias, president of Kentucky State University in Frankfort, was named chair of the board of directors of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The association represents 218 universities in all 50 states. Eighteen of the members are historically black universities.

• Carl H. Davis, co-founder of the Ladera Group of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Torrance, California, was appointed to the board of directors of Antioch University in Los Angeles.

• Donna N. Williams, vice president and program manager at Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Inc., was elected vice chair of the board of regents of the Texas State University system. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Prairie View A&M University.

• Samuel Harrison was appointed interim associate vice chancellor for the division of information technology at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. He has been serving as assistant chair of the department of electrical and computer engineering.

Harrison is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University and holds an MBA from Duke University.

• Battinto L. Batts Jr. was named director of the William R. Harvey Leadership Institute at Hampton University in Virginia. Since 2007 Batts has served as an assistant professor at the university’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications.

Batts is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University and holds a master’s degree in media management from Norfolk State University.

• George E. Cooper, president of South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, was appointed chair of the Council of 1890 Universities. The council consists of presidents of historically black land grant universities.

Dr. Cooper is a graduate of Florida A&M University. He holds a master’s degree in animal science from Tuskegee University and a Ph.D. in animal nutrition from the University of Illinois.