Mary Baldwin names interim provost/chief academic officer

Tynisha Willingham, dean of Mary Baldwin University’s College of Education, has been named the Staunton school’s interim provost and chief academic officer. She replaces Ty Buckman, who joined the Foundation of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture as its executive vice president this month.

“I am delighted to lead and shape the academic enterprise at Mary Baldwin University,” Willingham said in a statement. “We are a family that values rich and hard dialogues about pressing issues while holding a space for one another’s common humanity. I am excited to share in the vision where our faculty and holistic programming efforts meet students where they are — whether on our residential campus, Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences, or through MBU Online.”

Willingham started her tenure at MBU last summer, coming from Wisconsin’s St. Norbert College, where she served as associate academic dean and associate professor of education. She holds degrees from Penn State and the University of Texas and has conducted research on literacy, community engaged learning and scholarly leadership.

MBU, a private liberal arts university founded in 1842, has an enrollment of 2,081. In August, its College of Health Sciences based in Fishersville will launch a new doctor of nursing program that will combine online studies with intensive, in-person clinical instruction up to three times a year.

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