Office of Academic Affairs
OAA Staff
Dr. Karrin E. Wilks
Senior Vice President & Interim Provost
Dr. Karrin E. Wilks, who has extensive experience in the fields of academic affairs and strategic planning and is a former Senior Vice President of the Vermont State Colleges, has been appointed Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Dr. Wilks has been serving as University Dean for Undergraduate Studies at The City University of New York since 2010, in which capacity she has been responsible for policies aimed at improving student learning outcomes, particularly to increase retention and graduation rates and to promote excellence in undergraduate education. She was Senior Vice President at the Vermont State Colleges from 2006 to 2010, where she was a member of the executive leadership team for a five-college public higher education system with more than 13,000 students.
Dr. Wilks has extraordinarily wide experience in academic affairs and strategic planning and brings a record of exemplary achievement in promoting academic excellence, student success and access to public higher education.
As University Dean for Undergraduate Studies at CUNY since 2010, Dr. Wilks has worked with the University's K-12 partners to improve college readiness and success rates in CUNY's developmental education programs; expanded high impact, evidence-based practices in the first year and beyond; and has helped ease transfer across CUNY colleges. She has also played a key role in assessing general education outcomes and supporting efforts to improve pedagogy across disciplines.
Dr. Wilks was Senior Vice President at the Vermont State Colleges from 2006 to 2010, where she reported directly to the Chancellor and work
Dr. Karrin E. Wilks, who has extensive experience in the fields of academic affairs and strategic planning and is a former Senior Vice President of the Vermont State Colleges, has been appointed Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.
Dr. Wilks has been serving as University Dean for Undergraduate Studies at The City University of New York since 2010, in which capacity she has been responsible for policies aimed at improving student learning outcomes, particularly to increase retention and graduation rates and to promote excellence in undergraduate education. She was Senior Vice President at the Vermont State Colleges from 2006 to 2010, where she was a member of the executive leadership team for a five-college public higher education system with more than 13,000 students.
Dr. Wilks has extraordinarily wide experience in academic affairs and strategic planning and brings a record of exemplary achievement in promoting academic excellence, student success and access to public higher education.
As University Dean for Undergraduate Studies at CUNY since 2010, Dr. Wilks has worked with the University's K-12 partners to improve college readiness and success rates in CUNY's developmental education programs; expanded high impact, evidence-based practices in the first year and beyond; and has helped ease transfer across CUNY colleges. She has also played a key role in assessing general education outcomes and supporting efforts to improve pedagogy across disciplines.
Dr. Wilks was Senior Vice President at the Vermont State Colleges from 2006 to 2010, where she reported directly to the Chancellor and worked closely with the Board of Trustees, five college presidents and the academic deans to enhance the system's capacity to provide access, educational quality and service to students. Prior to that she was Vice President for Academic and Strategic Planning at the Vermont State Colleges from 2001 to 2006, serving as the system's chief strategic planning and academic officer.
From 1996 to 2001 Dr. Wilks was Director of Academic Affairs at the Vermont State Colleges, serving as the chief academic officer for five colleges. Her responsibilities included overseeing academic program development and review, designing system-wide faculty development initiatives, representing the system in state-level and national preK-16 initiatives, and leading special system-wide academic projects such as the Learning Communities grants. During 1994-95 she was the Curriculum Developer for IBM Burlington Education Services, under the auspices of the University of Vermont/Vermont State Colleges Consortium. She served as a course and program developer for a team managing education and training for approximately 6300 employees.
Dr. Wilks is a 1982 graduate of Middlebury College, where she received her B.A. in American history with a minor in creative writing and made the Dean's List. She earned her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction, and her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Vermont in 1985 and 1993, respectively.
ed closely with the Board of Trustees, five college presidents and the academic deans to enhance the system's capacity to provide access, educational quality and service to students. Prior to that she was Vice President for Academic and Strategic Planning at the Vermont State Colleges from 2001 to 2006, serving as the system's chief strategic planning and academic officer.
From 1996 to 2001 Dr. Wilks was Director of Academic Affairs at the Vermont State Colleges, serving as the chief academic officer for five colleges. Her responsibilities included overseeing academic program development and review, designing system-wide faculty development initiatives, representing the system in state-level and national preK-16 initiatives, and leading special system-wide academic projects such as the Learning Communities grants. During 1994-95 she was the Curriculum Developer for IBM Burlington Education Services, under the auspices of the University of Vermont/Vermont State Colleges Consortium. She served as a course and program developer for a team managing education and training for approximately 6300 employees.
Dr. Wilks is a 1982 graduate of Middlebury College, where she received her B.A. in American history with a minor in creative writing and made the Dean's List. She earned her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction, and her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Vermont in 1985 and 1993, respectively.
Dr. Theresa Williams
Assistant Provost
Dr. Theresa Williams was appointed as Assistant Provost effective February 19, 2013.
With nearly two decades of experience in urban, suburban, public and private higher education settings, focusing on the liberal arts, career-oriented education, and research, Dr. Williams most recently worked as a Research Foundation Consultant at Medgar Evers College developing, implementing and coordinating aspects of Supplemental Instruction (SI), including hiring, training and supervising SI leaders; creating training materials; developing and facilitating training initiatives for faculty and students; preparing, developing and distributing program outcome reports; and developing partnerships with academic departments.
Previously, Dr. Williams spent 9 years at New York Institute of Technology as Associate Dean of Academic Support and Director of Academic Enrichment Programs respectively. As Associate Dean, she provided administrative, budgetary, supervisory and conceptual leadership and oversight to seven departments as well as professional and support staff. Dr. Williams developed a multi-faceted approach for academic support and retention services based on performance measures, student evaluations, program assessments and other supplemental data to support NYIT’s strategic goal of becoming a student-centered institution with improved retention.
Dr. Williams also developed a peer advisement program, decreased student academic probation rates, assisted in the implementation of an early intervention system for first-year students and developed ways for the staff to utilize this data proactively to assist them. She also developed and instituted metrics-driven performance based systems to monitor staff performance in critical areas that directly affected student experience and retention.
As Director of Academic Enrichment Programs, she served as the senior administrator responsible for student-centered academic support programs and services designed to enhance the educational experience of undergraduate students. She was responsible for the administrative, budgetary, supervisory, and conceptual leadership of six administrative departments, professional and support staff, student workers and a $1M annual budget. She provided direction to programs and services including academic support, early semester evaluations, placement testing and professional mentorship, while forging successful partnerships with academic schools, departments, enrollment services and student affairs.
Before joining NYIT, Dr. Williams was the Director of Opportunity Programs and Undergraduate Services at Columbia University, where she was responsible for highly successful student-centered programs and services whose mission was to enhance the educational experience of students. Under her leadership, these programs had a 90% graduation rate. Prior to her Columbia University position, Dr. Williams was the Assistant Director/Counselor of the Academic Opportunity Program at Union College in Schenectady, New York where she worked on budgets and grant proposals, provided academic advisement as well as personal and career counseling, developed and implemented diversity programs, coordinated tutoring services and served as advisor to several student organizations.
Dr. Williams is a 1990 graduate of SUNY Albany with a B.A. in African-American Studies/English, where she also obtained a Master of Arts in Africana Studies in 1991. She completed her Doctorate of Education in International Educational Development/Higher Education at Teachers College, Columbia University in 2012.
Dr. Williams’ body of international research has focused on factors that influence the success of black and other students of color which was conducted at the University of Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Dr. Williams also was part of an evaluation study of Botswana’s Tertiary Education Quality Assurance Policy at several higher education institutions in Botswana, a collaborative project between Teachers College, Columbia University and University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.
She is a member a number of professional organizations including the American College Personnel Association, National Academic Advising Association, National Collegiate Honors Council and Higher Education Opportunity Program Professional Organization.Deborah Stengle
Director of Study Abroad
Deborah Stengle graduated from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio in 1999 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Art History and a minor in Archaeology. As an undergraduate, Deborah studied abroad in Belize. After completing her B.A., she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Lithuania for two and half years where she worked as an English teacher. After completion of the Peace Corps, Deborah traveled in Asia for six months and taught English in Thailand. In 2005, Deborah earned a Master’s Degree in International Education from The School for International Training in Brattleboro, VT. Deborah has worked as a Study Abroad Advisor for the past seven years, first at the William H. Young Center for Global Education at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin and then the Center for International Service at the College of Staten Island/CUNY. Deborah is excited about building study abroad programs and international exchange opportunities for students at Medgar Evers. The Office of Study Abroad is located at 1650 Bedford Avenue, Room 3010. Contact her with any questions at 718.270.5136 or by email at dstengle@mec.cuny.edu.
Cari Jackson-Robinson
Confidential Executive Assistant to the Provost
cjackson@mec.cuny.edu
718-270-5004
Karen Mitchell
Special Assistant to the Provost & IT Academic Specialist
kmitchell@mec.cuny.edu
718-270-5043
Mary Powel-Perera
Assistant to the Dean
perera@mec.cuny.edu
718-270-6921
Georgette Brown
Assistant to the Assistant Provost
geobrown@mec.cuny.edu
718-270-5010
