Campus & Community / Magazine Feature

New Women’s College dean announced

Lynn Gangone will become dean of the DU Women’s College June 1, 2007, Provost Gregg Kvistad announced on Feb. 28.

Gangone currently serves as a visiting assistant professor in the higher education administration program at George Washington University and is a senior consultant at Kaludis Consulting in Washington, D.C.

“It is hard to imagine a better résumé for a person about to become the dean of the Women’s College,” Kvistad says. “An academic leader with deep knowledge and enormous people skills, Lynn is extraordinarily well suited for moving the college to the next level.”

At George Washington University since 2004, Gangone has researched the history of higher education, gender equity and state education policy. She has taught courses in educational leadership and administration. Students consistently rate her in the top 10 percent of teaching faculty.

Gangone has consulted for universities on strategic planning, new technology applications, expense containment, partnership development and managing institutional change. She has also been a lobbyist for higher education, vice president of the Maryland Independent College and University Association and executive director and CEO of the National Association for Women in Education. Previously, she was a campus vice president in the areas of development, college relations and student affairs.

She has served as a coordinator, faculty member and executive coach at the Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education, co-sponsored by Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) and Bryn Mawr College. The Summer Institute seeks to improve the status of middle- and executive-level women in higher education administration by providing participants with information pertinent to managing and governing colleges and universities.

Gangone received an EdD and MEd in Higher and Postsecondary Education from Columbia University, an MS and CAS in counseling psychology from the State University of New York at Albany, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the College of New Rochelle.

“The Women’s College is an extraordinary institution that I now have the good fortune to serve as dean,” Gangone says. “I will enjoy and value my work with campus and community colleagues as we write the next chapter in the college’s history.”

Gangone hopes to increase the Women’s College’s partnerships within the University and with community businesses, organizations and schools.

“The Women’s College student will be characterized by a tremendous passion for learning that sculpts her career and shapes her life,” Gangone says. “The college will be the studio for local, national and international leadership.”

Gangone replaces Michele “Mike” Bloom, who stepped down on Dec. 31, 2006. Bloom took the helm of the Women’s College — then named the Weekend College — in 1992. During her time at the University, Bloom ushered the school through a variety of milestones, including the evolution of the Women’s College from Weekend College and the creation of the Chambers Center for the Advancement of Women on the DU campus. Bloom will stay on for a year to serve as an adviser to the new dean and to organize the school’s archives.

“I have known Lynn and known of her work for many years. She brings a wealth of experience and sophistication regarding women’s education,” Bloom says. “I look forward to working with her to make this leadership transition for the Women’s College as it enters a new stage in its commitment to women’s education and advancement.”

Lorni Sharrow, assistant dean of the Women’s College, will serve as interim dean through June.

Gangone’s appointment marks the end of an extensive national search. Chaired by Ginger Maloney, dean of the College of Education, and consisting of faculty, staff and students, a search committee screened hundreds of applicants.

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