3.2.8 Qualified administrative/academic officers

The institution has qualified administrative and academic officers with the experience, competence, and capacity to lead the institution.

Judgment of Compliance

Compliance

Narrative of Justification

The administrative and academic officers of Bennett College include the President, Provost, the Vice Presidents and other members of the Senior Staff, the Division Chairs, and other key members of the Provost’s Council. All are highly qualified with the experience, competence, and capacity to lead as documented below.

Senior Staff

Bennett College’s new President announced a reorganization of the Senior Staff in August 2007. The brief bios of Senior Staff members in 2007-2008 document a highly experienced and well qualified administrative team with strong academic credentials and successful track records of professional and civic engagement. Highlights of their credentials are as follows:

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is the 15th President of Bennett College.  Recognized for her progressive and insightful observations, she is also an economist, author and commentator, and has been described by Dr. Cornel West as “the most iconoclastic public intellectual in the country.”  Dr. Malveaux’s contributions to the public dialogue on issues such as race, culture, gender, and their economic impacts, are shaping public opinion in 21st century America.  Dr. Malveaux received her BA and MA degrees in economics from Boston College, and earned a PhD in economics from MIT. A native San Franciscan, she is the President/ CEO of Last Word Productions, Inc. a multimedia production company headquartered in Washington, DC, and currently resides in Greensboro, NC.  In addition to her columns and media appearances, Dr. Malveaux is an accomplished author and editor. Her academic work is included in numerous papers, studies, and publications. She is the editor of Voices of Vision: African American Women on the Issues (1996); the co-editor of Slipping Through the Cracks: The Status of Black Women (1986), and recently co-edited The Paradox of Loyalty: An African American Response to the War on Terrorism (2002). She is the author of two column anthologies: Sex, Lies, and Stereotypes: Perspectives of a Mad Economist (1994), Wall Street, Main Street, and the Side Street: A Mad Economist Takes a Stroll (1999). She is most recently the co-author of Unfinished Business: A Democrat and A Republican Take On the 10 Most Important Issues Women Face (2002). (www.bennett.edu/web/administration/president.htm)

Dr. Marilyn Sanders Mobley is the Provost at Bennett College.  She became the Chief Academic Officer of the College in July of 2007, where she also serves as a Professor of English in the Department of English.  She formerly served as Associate Provost for Educational Programs at George Mason University, where she was an associate professor of English and the founder and first director of the African American Studies Program (1992-1998) in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.  Affiliated with George Mason University for 19 years, Dr. Mobley was also a member of the faculty in African American Studies, Women’s Studies and Cultural Studies.  As Associate Provost, her responsibilities included general education program, distance education, student academic appeals and related academic policy matters.  She served as the campus liaison between the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Democracy Project at Mason, an initiative devoted to integrating the civic engagement and the study of citizenship into the undergraduate curriculum, to which she brought a global focus on democracy. Dr. Mobley earned her B.A. degree in English and Education from Barnard College of Columbia University, her M.A. degree in English from New York University and her Ph.D. in English from Case Western Reserve University.  She has taught at Case Western Reserve, Cleveland State University, Wayne State University, Marygrove College, and Howard University.   . 

The Vice President of Business and Finance (Vacant):  Please see the Resume of the most recent Vice President of Business and Finance who departed the College in December 2007.

The Vice President of Student Affairs (Vacant):   Please see the Resume of the most recent Vice President of Student Affairs who departed the College in December 2007.

Dr. Gwendolyn Bookman is the Associate Provost for Educational Programs.  She is an attorney and has worked in a variety of responsible positions in higher education administration for over thirty years.  Her roles in academia have included affirmative action officer, assistant and associate professor, associate vice president and associate provost of academic affairs, executive assistant to the president, secretary of the college, training and policy research coordinator, senior student affairs officer and vice president for college relations.  She has been exposed to every aspect of the academy and has worked directly with several respected leaders in higher education.  She has served in eight academic institutions that include small liberal arts colleges and large research universities.  The institutions have been private, public, historically black and historically white.  Bookman has served as the assistant to four woman presidents. 

The Academic Administrators constitutes the leadership team in academic affairs reporting to the Provost (formerly Vice President for Academic Affairs). Its membership is composed of veteran division chairs and senior academic administrators with extensive experience in teaching, research, and scholarly presentations.

Dr. Susan Curtis is the Division Chair of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.  She has served as a faculty member and administrator at Bennett College for eighteen years as of the 2007-2008 academic year and is currently a Professor of Chemistry with tenure.   She also currently serves as Chair of the Division of Natural and Behavioral Sciences/Mathematics and Chair of the Department of Chemistry.  She has performed research in the area of membrane biochemistry including transport systems and the role of penicillin-binding proteins in the mechanism of action of penicillin antibiotics.  She has extensive teaching experience and teaches courses in Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry and Chemistry Research and incorporates a variety of methods in her teaching including interactive teaching methods which use smart classroom technology.   She is currently involved in introducing principles of computational science into the teaching of principles of chemistry.  She earned her A.B. degree in Biochemical Sciences from Radcliffe College at Harvard University, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Chicago.  She has obtained postdoctoral training in biochemistry at Cornell University and Harvard University

Dr. Millicent Rainey is the Division Chair of Social Sciences and Education and received the Master of Arts degree in Education Administration at North Carolina Central University (Durham, NC) and continued her studies receiving an Ed.D in Educational Leadership at NOVA Southeastern University (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida).  She holds NC licensure in eleven specialty areas. Following the completion of 31 years in public education, Dr. Rainey joined the faculty of Bennett College where she has served as Associate Professor, Department Chairs, and Division Director. In 2004, Dr, Rainey and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction received a one million dollar ($1,000,000.00) grant to strengthen teacher education and reading in target public schools. Dr. Rainey and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction partnered with ten (10) public schools in NC to provide professional development for teachers, teacher assistants and students.

Dr. Anne Mangum is the Division Chair of Humanities.  She is a tenured professor of English and Division Chair, did her graduate work at UNC-Greensboro, receiving her M.A. and Ph.D. in English.  She has taught at UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Chapel Hill, Pembroke State University, Durham Technical Community College, and Bennett College.  Dr. Mangum is author of Reflections of Africa in Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama and Poetry and co-author of Adult Daycare:  Findings from a National Survey, Johns Hopkins University Press.  Her articles have appeared in College Composition and Communication, Modern Poetry Studies, A Feminist Encyclopedia of African American Women, Issues and Identities in Literature, and Endeavors, the UNCCH research magazine.  She has presented at conferences of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Southeastern Renaissance Society, the National Conference on Learning Communities, and the Conference on College Composition and Communications.  With broad research interests, she has participated in seminars in Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, and Austria and carried out research in Belgium and at Oxford University. 

Dr. Audrey Ward is the Dean of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology.  She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and joined the faculty at KSU in 2002. As an Associate Professor of English, she formerly served as Chair of the Department of English and Foreign Languages.  Totally, she has more than 25 years of teaching experience on the collegiate level.  Some of her hallmark experiences are found in her community outreach.  They include designing and teaching a seminar-course on Black Women Writers to participants of the Miss Teen African American Pageant, Charlotte, NC, 2006 and serving as a National African American Women’s Leadership Institute Fellow, where she designed and directed a Weekend Tutorial Academy Project.  The Project served more than 100 “Academically Challenged” students in the Orange County School System.  The Project also provided Community Service Opportunities for 20 college students who tutored in the weekend Academy.  Another experience that connects Dr. Ward to community is her writing of religious dramas.  Several of her dramas have been and continue to be presented in local churches as an enhancement to their Christian Education Programs.

Supporting Documents

SOURCE	LOCATION/Special Instructions
College Website: President's Office	www.bennett.edu/web/administration/president.htm
Curriculum Vita Dr. Audrey Ward Dr. Anne Mangum Dr. Gwendolyn Bookman Dr. Marilyn Sanders Mobley Dr. Millicent Rainey Dr. Susan Curtis The Vice President of Business and Finance The Vice President of Student Affairs	Office of Human Resources