Candidate Information and Open Forums

Valerio Ferme, Ph.D.

Valerio Ferme, PhD, is in his third year serving as the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at the University of Cincinnati (UC). He oversees over 50,000 students, 6,000 faculty and 15 academic colleges, as well as for UC Online, Student Affairs and Enrollment Management.

In three years as provost, Ferme has launched major initiatives that align with his president’s Next Lives Here strategic direction. A firm believer in student access, he has championed student success via access, attention, retention, graduation, and post-graduation initiatives. In addition, he has created committees for academic analytics, and General Education and Ohio transfer review, that help simplify and support retention initiatives for undergraduate and graduate students alike. During his tenure, he also increased funding to more than double yearly hires of underrepresented faculty; created a post-doctoral program to attract diverse, prospective faculty candidates; provided permanent support for professional development and employee resource groups; and addressed salary minima for advising staff and adjunct faculty.

Ferme joined UC in 2019 as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences - UC’s largest college. As dean, Ferme spearheaded a college-wide commitment to research that increased sponsored awards from @$10M to over $20M. Moreover, in committing to the teacher-scholar model, he aligned the college pedagogy with experiential-based learning and co-operative education (with an increase in co-operative programming from one to nine degree programs); and was the first dean to create the faculty post of Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence and Community Partnerships, which has since been adopted by many other colleges. Notably, Ferme led the college through COVID-19 campus-to-remote transition and, despite the global pandemic, balanced the college budget for the first time since 2012, while absorbing over $9M of expense and revenue shortfalls via careful spending and increased philanthropic partnerships.

Prior to UC, Ferme served as Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Northern Arizona University (NAU) from 2017-2019 and Divisional Dean for the Arts and Humanities at the University of Colorado from 2015-2017, where he taught for nineteen years and served six years as Chair of the Department of French and Italian. At NAU, Ferme successfully reduced deficits, increased underrepresented faculty hires, and bolstered collaborations between students and organizations within the Flagstaff area, as well as with the Native people of the Arizona high plains. At the University of Colorado, Ferme’s work also focused on curricular enhancements as well as support for underrepresented minorities. In 2014, Ferme was recognized for his pedagogy with the Boulder Faculty Assembly Excellence in Teaching Award and in 2017 for his work in Inclusive Excellence on behalf of staff and underrepresented graduate students with a Special Recognition Award from the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement.

Ferme earned undergraduate degrees in Biology and Religious Studies at Brown University, a Master in Comparative Literature and Italian Studies from Indiana University and a PhD in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley, where he was awarded Fulbright and Chancellor’s Fellowships. As a scholar, Ferme has published three monographs, three edited volumes, two scholarly translations and a bilingual collection of poetry, in addition to over 60 articles and reviews.

The parent of two adopted sons, Ferme and his husband, Giorgio, currently have guardianship over four grandchildren. In their spare time, the family enjoys creating and sampling food, traveling to National Parks, and visiting with friends.

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Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix, Ph.D.

Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix (Liz) is the Provost and Executive Vice President at Miami University in Oxford Ohio. Prior to serving as Provost, Dr. Mullenix was the Dean of the College of Creative Arts at Miami for nine years and Chair of the Department of Theatre at Miami for seven years. Dr. Mullenix was tenured and promoted at Illinois State University, where she also served as the Associate Dean of the, now, Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts. Dr. Mullenix is a scholar of antebellum theatre and performance and the American Civil War, first wave feminism, American race relations, and gender/feminist theory. Her book Wearing the Breeches: Gender on the Antebellum Stage was published by St. Martin’s Press Palgrave; her second monograph Staging Stowe: Abolitionist Theatre and the Politics of Slavery is currently in progress. Dr. Mullenix has served on the Board of Directors for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Richmond Shakespeare Festival, and is a voting member of the Miami University Foundation Board.

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Donald Easton-Brooks, Ph.D.

Dr. Donald Easton-Brooks is an internationally recognized researcher and leader who champions initiatives for student success, diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and a healthy and collaborative workplace. He has over 25 years of experience in higher education, including 15 years in leadership roles. Throughout his career, he has prioritized the student experience, research that benefits communities, and creating an environment that promotes a sense of belonging.

He serves as the dean of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Nevada, Reno. Prior to joining UNR in 2019, Easton-Brooks served as the dean of the School of Education and in a leadership role in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Connecticut.

Throughout his career, Easton-Brooks has led the development of strategic infrastructures to increase student enrollment, retention, engagement, research funding, diversity among students and faculty, partnerships, interdisciplinary collaboration, shared governance, alumni engagement, and donor funding.

Easton-Brooks has spearheaded several programs designed to provide opportunities for diverse student populations. He was instrumental in creating award-winning pre-collegiate academic enrichment/pathway programs that enable students from marginalized communities to engage in dual credit programs. To date, these programs have seen over 1,000 students enter the program, with 75% entering college. Other programs include supporting the UNR Dean Future Scholars program, which serves over 400 students from Title I schools, and co-creating the Oregon Educator Advisory Group.

Dr. Easton-Brooks has also been active in shaping policies and has a national presence. He has served on a panel for the National Science Foundation on Research Security Training for the United States (U.S.) Research Community and on a panel for A Vision and Roadmap for Education Statistics in 2030 and Beyond for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (CNSTAT). He currently sits on the executive board of WestEd and the Council of Academic Deans from Research Education Institutions (CADREI). In Minnesota, he participated in a panel to discuss the impact of workforce development on marginalized communities for the U.S. Department of Education.

Easton-Brooks grew up in Houston, Texas, and earned a football scholarship from the University of Texas at El Paso. After a knee injury, he transferred to Greenville University in Illinois, where he earned a B.A. in Sociology. After earning his degree, he worked as a counselor before earning his master’s in early childhood special education, emphasizing multicultural family studies at the University of Colorado at Denver. Later, he earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, emphasizing Educational Research and Culturally Responsive Practice.

Dr. Easton-Brooks is known as a critical quantitative-culturally responsive scholar and is one of few researchers of color to use advanced quantitative analysis to examine the impact of culturally responsive practice/systems on marginalized communities. He received the 2019 National Association of Multicultural Education’s (NAME) Philip C. Chinn Book Award for his book Ethnic Matching: Academic Success of Students of Color. He co-authored the article, "The Crises are Coming: Social Media Challenges Facing Higher Education Leadership," which was published in the Journal of Higher Education Management and was awarded the 2020 Neuner Award for Excellence in Professional-Scholarly Publication by the American Association of University Administrators (AAUA).

Dr. Easton-Brooks has published over 135 scholarly articles, monographs, book chapters, books, and presentations. He has received over $5.6M in external funding. His research has been cited on educational initiatives and policy efforts in the U.S. and other countries, such as Africa, Australia, Germany, India, and New Zealand. The impact of his work has led to national and international interviews on television, radio talk shows, newspapers, and parenting magazines.

Easton-Brooks remains active in research and leadership to continue promoting education as a catalyst for success.

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Aondover Tarhule, Ph.D.

Dr. Aondover Tarhule was appointed interim president of Illinois State University in February 2023 by the University’s Board of Trustees. In this capacity, he provides intellectual leadership and direction for the university, exercises final authority on budget and fiscal management, supervises a cabinet of 10 members, and serves as the face of the university in stakeholder engagement (donors, alums, legislators, community, and industry leaders). Before becoming interim president, Dr. Tarhule was Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at ISU.

His significant accomplishments at Illinois State include securing approval for a new College of Engineering, developing a comprehensive enrollment management plan, leading the development of Illinois State’s next strategic plan (Excellence by Design), working to increase enrollment and simulation capacity in the Mennonite College of Nursing, securing approval for a new School of Creative Technologies, facilitating the creation of a new degree in Data Science, investing in faculty diversity (FDEP) and underrepresented student success initiatives (SOAR), envisioning the acceleration of clusters of research excellence at Illinois State (ARCS), championing significant renovations to campus facilities and buildings, securing approval for a differential tuition structure, and significant community and donor engagement efforts.

Dr. Tarhule also held administrative and leadership roles as Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Binghamton University; State University of New York, SUNY), Executive Associate Dean, and Department Chair (University of Oklahoma, OU).

Dr. Aondover Tarhule is a distinguished scholar, scientist, and leader in environmental science and policy. With a career spanning over three decades, Dr. Tarhule has significantly contributed to our understanding of climate change, water resources management, and sustainable development in diverse global contexts. He has received over $5 M in funded research as PI or Co-PI from agencies such as NSF, NOAA, NIH, USGS, and USAID, among others. Dr. Tarhule's research has garnered widespread recognition for its scholarly excellence and real-world impact. His work has contributed significantly to understanding how environmental change affects vulnerable communities and ecosystems, particularly in regions prone to water scarcity and drought.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Dr. Tarhule has been actively involved in shaping environmental and educational policy at both national and international levels. Nationally, he has served on the Innovate Illinois Task Force, the Illinois Commission on Equitable Public University Funding, committees of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, the Association of American Geographers, and several editorial boards.

Internationally, he was a consultant for the World Bank on the Climate Risk Assessment of the Niger River Basin, member of the CODESRIA College of Mentors, and served on the Advisory Board of the Walker Institute at Reading University in the UK.

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