The Chronicle

Issue date: 10/17/07 Section: News
Last update: 10/17/07 at 6:17 AM EST

Donna Lisker

After a one-month search process, Donna Lisker, director of the Women's Center, was named associate dean of undergraduate education Tuesday.

In her new position, Lisker, who has worked in the Women's Center for the past eight years, will work with Dean of Undergraduate Education Steve Nowicki-named to his post in July-in coordinating both the academic and social strains of undergraduate life.

Along with her role in the Women's Center, Lisker has also served as codirector of the Baldwin Scholar's Program since 2004. She will continue to direct the program but will leave the Women's Center.

"I was interested in the position because it did what I tried to do with the Baldwin Scholars-it brings together the social, the intellectual, the residential and the extracurricular," Lisker said.

The Office of Undergraduate E ducation made other additions as well. Lee Willard, who will maintain her post as associate dean for planning in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, will also serve as an associate dean for undergraduate education, and Susan Kauffman, who will continue as the director of special projects in the Office of Public Affairs, was appointed as director of communication under Nowicki.

At Nowicki's request, President Richard Brodhead and Provost Peter Lange created the two new positions this summer in order to aid him and help to provide alternative viewpoints on issues raised within the department, Nowicki said.

"I wanted to make sure I have diverse perspectives," he said. "Donna brings a very different perspective."

Though Lisker's experience with the Women's Center will be beneficial in her new role, it is not her only qualification, Nowicki said.

Lisker was also one of the primary contributors to the Women's Initiative-a study of gender relations on Duke's campus that was commissioned by the University and published in the fall of 2003.

"She's not just the dean for women undergraduates," Nowicki said. "She has a distinguished academic background and is an exceptionally qualified administrator."

Though Lisker's specific responsibilities are still unclear, Nowicki said she was likely to take on a leadership role in the aftermath of the Interim Report on the Undergraduate Experience, evaluating and suggesting methods for implementing the recommendations posed by the provost.

Nowicki added that the work of the department will be a team effort between the dean and associate deans.

The search process for the associate deanship began in mid-August and concluded in mid-September with Lisker's selection.

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