Building on its rising status as a national research university, Northeastern recently welcomed six administrators to high-level positions within academic affairs and external relations.
Four strengthen the leadership group in the Office of the Provost. Mary Loeffelholz has been named vice provost for academic affairs. Judith Pitney is the new vice provost for budget, planning, and administration. Ken Blank is the vice provost for research, and Susan Powers-Lee takes over as vice provost for undergraduate and cooperative education.
In the area of external relations, Carol Scheman has been named the university’s new senior vice president for external affairs, and Michael Armini is the new vice president for marketing and communications.
Loeffelholz, a distinguished scholar of American literature, served during the past year as special assistant to the president for academic affairs. Prior to that, she was associate dean for faculty affairs and director of the College of Arts and Sciences Graduate School.
A Northeastern faculty member since 1988, Loeffelholz chaired the English department from 2001 to 2006. She is the author of three books, most recently From School to Salon: Reading Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Poetry. She is also the editor of “Volume D: 1914–1945” of the latest edition of the Norton Anthology of American Literature, one of the most widely respected literature anthologies in the field.
Pitney has held executive positions at a number of research institutions, most recently Drexel University, where she was vice provost for budget, planning, and administration. She has also served as associate dean for the faculty of arts and sciences at New York University, and associate provost, with responsibility for master planning and academic-budget matters, at Southern Methodist University. At Northeastern, Pitney will work on budget planning and assist colleges and schools with strategic planning and operational issues.
Blank most recently worked at Drexel University as vice provost for research, and professor of pathology and laboratory medicine. He will oversee Northeastern’s campus-wide planning efforts and administrative services related to research and research facilities.
A twenty-five-year Northeastern veteran, Powers-Lee has been a biology faculty member and department chair. Most recently, she served as vice provost for undergraduate education and executive vice provost. In her new role, she will help develop a richer integration of experiential and course-based learning.
Scheman comes to Northeastern with deep expertise in government relations, particularly at the federal level, and strategic communications. She most recently worked at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, where she was vice president for external affairs. Before that, she was vice president for government, community, and public affairs at the University of Pennsylvania, and deputy commissioner for external affairs at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In her role as senior vice president, Scheman will preside over external affairs, including marketing, communications, government relations, and community outreach.
Armini, who has extensive experience in national media and public relations, was previously the assistant dean for communications at Harvard Law School. Before that, he was director of communications at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
He has also worked in Washington, D.C., as a congressional press secretary.