Todd Alessandri
Bryant University has named Todd M. Alessandri, Ph.D., as dean of the College of Business, effective July 22, 2024. He joins Bryant from Northeastern University, where he was Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education in the D’Amore-McKim School of Business. While at Northeastern, Alessandri coordinated academic programming across its three campuses in Boston, Oakland, CA and London. He oversaw interdisciplinary curriculum development and administration while managing the advising and cooperative education staff. Prior to becoming Associate Dean, he led Northeastern’s full time MBA program. As a professor, he taught at Northeastern, Providence College, Syracuse University, and Babson College.
Gwendolyn Notestine
Texas A&M University-San Antonio has appointed Gwendolyn Notestine as the new vice president for University Advancement. Notestine joins A&M-San Antonio from the Arizona State University Foundation, where she has served as assistant vice president for Development since 2022. Notestine also worked for nearly a decade at UT Health San Antonio, serving in various director roles and facilitating key philanthropic support for health-related initiatives, including the Military Health Institute and the School of Nursing. While working at Texas Christian University and the University of Texas at Arlington, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology in 2000.
Dariel Vasquez
Bard College has named Dariel Vasquez as its next vice president of Strategic Partnerships and Institutional Initiatives, a newly created position at Bard. At Bard, Vasquez co-founded Brothers during his first year. Within the last three years, Vasquez has raised more than six million dollars for Brothers@, expanding the organization to 133 college students, 98 of whom participate in the Ambassador program reaching Oakland, California; Dallas, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Washington, DC; and New York State. Vasquez, a first-generation college graduate from Bard College’s class of 2017, earned a joint bachelor’s degree in history and sociology with a concentration in Africana Studies.
John A. Nunes
California Lutheran University has named Dr. John A. Nunes as interim president, effective June 1, 2024. Dr. Nunes, most recently the pastor at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Santa Monica, CA, previously served as the president of Concordia College New York. Since 2020, he has been a member of the Academic Leaders Task Force on Campus Free Expression at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He was ordained as a Lutheran minister in 1991 and holds degrees from Concordia College, Ann Arbor (BA), Concordia Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario (MDiv), and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (ThM and PhD).
Ronald S. Rochon
The California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees has appointed Ronald S. Rochon to serve as president of California State University, Fullerton, beginning on July 22, 2024. Rochon currently serves as president of the University of Southern Indiana. Previously, Rochon served as the university’s provost from 2010 to 2018. Rochon also served as the inaugural dean of the School of Education and associate vice president for Teacher Education and professor at Buffalo State College in Buffalo, New York. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Tuskegee University and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
