Two new leadership appointments announced

Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee announced two major university leadership appointments at Friday's (11/7) meeting of the university's Board of Trustees.

The board approved the appointments of Javaune Adams-Gaston as vice president for student life and Alan C. Michaels as dean of the Moritz College of Law.

Adams-Gaston will fill the post of vice president for student life following the January 2009 retirement of Richard Hollingsworth, a 35-year Ohio State veteran who has held that position since 2006. Adams-Gaston currently is executive director of the University Career Center and the President's Promise program at the University of Maryland in College Park, as well as equity administrator in the university's Division of Student Affairs.

With more than 25 years of administrative experience at the University of Maryland, Adams-Gaston has served in a number of capacities, holding key positions in student affairs, academic affairs, intercollegiate athletics and university-level administration. A licensed psychologist, she has held teaching positions at Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and Iowa State, and has presented her research at a number of national conferences. She has served as a peer reviewer for NCAA Athletic Certification since 1997.

“Dr. Adams-Gaston is one of this country's most forward-thinking, successful student life professionals,” said Gee. “She has a full understanding of the broad range of students' needs, and I look forward to working with her to make Ohio State the nation's finest collegiate environment.”

In her new role, Adams-Gaston will oversee an office with more than 5,000 employees, including 4,000 part-time student employees, and an annual budget of $176 million. The Office of Student Life is responsible for a wide range of student services, including housing, food service, recreation, the Ohio Union and student activities, mental health and career counseling, health care and wellness, disability services, the Multicultural Center, parent and family relations, student judicial affairs, off-campus student services, student advocacy, BuckID, and the student housing legal clinic (in partnership with the Moritz College of Law), as well as conference services and several event centers.

Adams-Gaston received her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Dubuque in Iowa in 1978, her master's degree in applied clinical psychology from Dubuque's Loras College in 1980, and a doctorate in psychology from Iowa State University in 1983.

Michaels, who holds the Edwin M. Cooperman Endowed Professorship of Law in Ohio State's Moritz College of Law, has been named dean of the college, effective Nov. 1. Michaels, who has been serving as interim dean since May 2008, succeeds Nancy Rogers who left the university to become Ohio's attorney general.

“I am pleased that Alan Michaels has agreed to serve as dean of the Moritz College of Law,” said Gee. “He is a remarkably talented teacher, scholar, and administrator, and we are fortunate that he has agreed to remove the word 'interim' from his title.”

As dean, Michaels will head Ohio State's 117-year old law school, which today offers more than 145 courses, covering nearly every area of law. The Moritz College's dispute resolution program is ranked as one of the nation's best, and the college itself is consistently ranked as one of the top 15 public law schools in the country. The college's 49 full-time and 35 adjunct faculty are highly regarded for their expertise and scholarship.

Before joining the Ohio State law faculty in 1995, Michaels served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Wilfred Feinberg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and to Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the Supreme Court of the United States. Following his clerkships, he was “of counsel” to the firm of McGuire & Tiernan in New York, serving as outside counsel to the Major League Baseball Players' Association. He then joined the New York District Attorney's Office, where he worked on felony prosecutions in both street crime and white collar crime units.

Michaels has received the Moritz College of Law Outstanding Professor Award in both 1999 and 2000 and, in 2007, received the university's Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching. He is also the recipient of the 1999 Outstanding Scholarly Paper Award from the Association of American Law Schools.

He earned his bachelor of arts degree magna cum laude in social studies from Harvard University in 1983 and his juris doctor degree from Columbia University School of Law in 1985.