University officials announced that five new staff members and administrators will be joining the Brandeis community. Some have already begun their work at Brandeis, while others will arrive later into the fall semester.

Director of Athletics Lauren S. Haynie

Lauren S. Haynie will become the University’s new director of athletics, Provost Lisa Lynch announced in an Aug. 23 email to the Brandeis community. Haynie, currently the senior associate director of athletics and physical education, recreation and athletics for Wellesley College, will begin her new role at Brandeis on Sept. 23.

Haynie will oversee the entire athletics program, a role which includes “enhance[ing] the student-athlete experience, help[ing] guide and mentor the coaches of our 19 varsity teams, and work[ing] as Brandeis Athletics’ primary representative in interactions with leaders across campus,” per Lynch’s email.

Haynie comes to Brandeis with “nearly two decades of experience in college athletics, including management, mentorship, and sports medicine,” Lynch wrote. She has held positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Catholic University of America, Lane College and Assumption College.

In an email to the Justice, Haynie explained that she was drawn to Brandeis because of its “institutional values,” including its “academic rigor” and “commitment to providing a welcoming environment for faculty, staff and students of all backgrounds.” Her top priority once she arrives on campus “will always be the ways in which athletics can strengthen the student experience” by giving students the opportunity to learn “values of resilience, teamwork and dedication,” she wrote.

Another priority is to make Gosman a place where everyone is “welcome to engage in physical activity, whether it be through classes, intramurals, club sports or fitness options,” she said in the email.

Throughout her career, Haynie has demonstrated a “strong record of championing diversity and inclusion,” Lynch wrote in her email.

Haynie wants to ensure that Brandeis is “attracting, recruiting and retaining students and staff that reflect the diversity of our world,” she wrote. She said she wants to ensure that the Athletics Department is partnering with other campus groups to promote inclusion, and in her email, she urged the Brandeis community to “not be afraid to engage each other across difference.”

“The diversity of our community is a strength, and we should also recognize that to truly enhance inclusion, we must be willing to explore and understand these differences,” she explained.

Haynie is a member of Women Leaders in College Sports, the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics, per Lynch’s email. At MIT, Haynie participated in the university’s Rainbow Compass Mentoring Program — a program that supports LBGTQ+ students — according to an Aug. 23 Brandeis Judges article.

For the last year, Jeffrey Ward has served as the interim director of athletics at Brandeis. He took over the position after former Director of Athletics Lynne Dempsey was demoted following the independent investigation spurred by former men’s basketball coach Brian Meehan’s firing. The investigation found that the Athletics and Human Resources departments had failed to protect players from Meehan’s racist discrimination and abuse.

Vice Provost of Student Affairs Raymond Lu-Ming Ou

Raymond Lu-Ming Ou became the University’s first vice provost of student affairs at the beginning of this academic year.

Ou will oversee departments including the Dean of Students Office; the Hiatt Career Center; the Department of Community Living; the Center for Spiritual Life; Hillel; Family Engagement and Communications; the Counseling Center; the Health Center and the Prevention, Advocacy and Resource Center, according to an Aug. 13 email from Lynch announcing Ou’s hiring. His work will “bring about stronger connections between Brandeis’ curricular and co-curricular activities,” Lynch explained.

Ou’s work will connect to Liebowitz’s Framework for Our Future and, more specifically, to the work of the student learning/living experience task force. He serves on the president’s leadership team.

Before joining campus, Ou was the senior associate dean of student affairs at Tufts University. He has also worked at Johns Hopkins University, Yale University and Simmons University, per Lynch’s email, and he comes to Brandeis with experience overseeing “residence life programs, diversity programs, culturally-inclusive counseling and health programs, student accessibility services, career services, academic advising and more.”

This semester, Ou will conduct a “holistic review of mental health needs and support deficits on our campus, in consultation with key stakeholders,” Lynch said. This review will be undertaken in response to both the task force’s work gathering feedback from the community and Ou’s experience with counseling. Lynch also cited the review in an Aug. 29 email she sent the Brandeis community as one of the steps the University was taking to address issues raised by the #StillConcernedStudents group.

 “I am excited to meet and work with our students, and to lead the student affairs team as we work to create the best possible experience for every student enrolled in our undergraduate and graduate programs,” Ou said in an Aug. 13 Brandeis NOW article.

Ou did not respond to the Justice’s request for comment.

Senior Vice President for Communications, Marketing and External Relations Dan Kim

Dan Kim joined Brandeis as the new senior vice president of communications, marketing and external relations on Sunday. In this role, Kim will “lead the central communications, marketing, and external relations team and the continued development of an integrated university-wide marketing communications strategy as our new branding platform is implemented,” University President Ron Liebowitz wrote in an Aug. 6 email that announced Kim’s hiring.

Kim also serves on the president’s leadership team and will work with the group to develop the Framework for Our Future and  to communicate its progress to the community.

“I think the university is at a very special moment in its history, with the dynamic leadership of President Liebowitz and the Framework for Our Future,” Kim wrote in an email to the Justice, adding that he is “honored to be joining the leadership team.” Getting to be a part of this work was one reason Kim was interested in the position.

Kim also pointed to the University’s “tremendous academic and research profile” and its “commitment to its founding values, especially to equity and inclusion” as reasons he joined the Brandeis community.

As he begins his time at Brandeis, Kim highlighted the need to “learn as much as [he] can” about the University. “I want to use my experience to help improve the marketing and communications efforts overall, partner with units across campus, help move the Framework for Our Future forward and develop a plan for the university’s external relations,” he wrote. “But before I can do any of that, I need to understand Brandeis, [its] history, culture and the work that is already happening.”

Kim comes to Brandeis after serving as the vice president for communications at the College of the Holy Cross, where he “managed strategic marketing, issues management, and government and community relations,” Liebowitz wrote in his email. He has also held leadership positions in communications and marketing fields at both the University of Michigan College of Engineering and West Virginia University.

Kim is taking over the role from Bill Walker, who became the interim senior vice president of communications in January after Ira Jackson, the former executive vice president for communications and external relations, left the University in December 2018.

Vice President of Campus Operations Lois A. Stanley

Stepping into a position that affects a diverse array of aspects of campus life, Lois A. Stanley will become the vice president of campus operations on Oct. 15. 

“[Stanley’s] portfolio at Brandeis will include Facilities Services, Public Safety, Capital Programs, Events Management, Dining Services, Environmental Health and Safety, Sustainability, Emergency Management and University Services,” Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Stew Uretsky wrote in an Aug. 27 email to the community announcing Stanley’s hiring.

Currently, Stanley is Tufts’ director of campus and capital renewal planning, where her work has included the university’s deferred maintenance program and helping to develop cross-school capital projects that affect departments across the campus. She has previously worked at Harvard University, where she was responsible for a range of capital projects.

“Campus Operations is first and foremost a service organization in support of the academic community,” Stanley wrote in an email to the Justice. As she begins her time at Brandeis, she will reach out to “key stakeholders in the academic community” to learn about their priorities.

“[Stanley] will help us enhance the safety, functionality, environmental sustainability and accessibility of our campus for students, employees and visitors,” Uretsky wrote in his email.

In her email to the Justice, Stanley expressed her desire to work with Mary Fischer, the manager for sustainability programs, “to understand the steps that have already been taken and how the university can build on those to do even more” to promote sustainability

From her similar work at Tufts, Stanley said she is “familiar with the challenges of creating accessible space across campus.”

“I am eager to get a better understanding of the Brandeis campus and work with the university community toward solutions that will improve accessibility,” she wrote.

Stanley will replace Interim Vice President for Campus Operations Richard Reynolds, who joined the University in April after Jim Gray left the position for another at Smith College.

Vice President of Development Hannah Peters

Hannah Peters will join the University as the vice president of development on Wednesday, according to an Aug. 27 Brandeis NOW article. In this role, she will “oversee fundraising activities in the institutional advancement division” and “implement strategies to ensure achievement of fundraising goals,” the article explained.

Before coming to Brandeis, Peters worked at Harvard University for 20 years, most recently as the associate dean for development and external relations at the Harvard Divinity School. She also held positions at Harvard Business School, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Stanford University School of Engineering and Tufts Medical College, and she has worked with the Asia Society and the Executive Council on Foreign Diplomats, per the same article.

In an email to the Justice, Peters explained that she decided to join the Brandeis community because the University “is at an interesting and important moment in its history” and because its “founding ideals of excellence, access and social justice have never been more urgently needed in higher ed and the world.” She also noted Brandeis’ “remarkable” staff, saying, “everyone I met during the interview process is exceptionally talented, committed, interesting and fun.”

Looking to the development work she will do at the University, Peters reflected that development “is the ultimate team sport.” Success, she said, requires “every part of the University coming together to tell the School’s story and articulate its goals.” She highlighted the importance of students and faculty in this venture, because they “will inspire philanthropy.”