New Leadership for Student Services

A pair of administrators from within the Arkansas Tech University family are taking on new responsibilities.

Susie Nicholson (photographed, left) was named vice president for student services and university relations and Amy Pennington (photographed, right) was named dean of students on Tuesday. Both Nicholson and Pennington have worked at Arkansas Tech for more than a decade.

In their new roles they will provide leadership for the Office of Student Services, which oversees student housing, health and wellness, counseling services, public safety and parking, student activities, student success services, career services, the disability and testing center, intramural and recreational sports, Greek life, judicial programs and student government.

“The Office of Student Services is absolutely vital to our institution,” said Arkansas Tech President Dr. Robert C. Brown. “Student success is our No. 1 mission, and the work performed by our student services professionals plays an integral role in helping our students persist to graduation. Mrs. Nicholson and Mrs. Pennington are imminently qualified to do this kind of work. I have complete confidence in both of them.”

Nicholson has served Arkansas Tech as assistant to the president for university relations since 1998.

She has led numerous marketing and public relations initiatives that have reshaped the university’s image and helped it become one of the South’s fastest growing institutions of higher learning.

Nicholson has held multiple leadership positions with the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) since coming to Arkansas Tech. She is currently serving on the national CASE Commission for Communications and Marketing.

Previous to her tenure at Arkansas Tech, Nicholson was vice president for marketing at First National Bank in Russellville from 1988-98. She began her professional career as public relations director for Pilgram and Associates in Russellville from 1986-88.  

Nicholson is a 1986 graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism. She added a Master of Science degree in college student personnel from Arkansas Tech in 2010, and she will graduate as part of Leadership Arkansas Class V on June 24.
 
Pennington moves to the Office of Student Services after serving Arkansas Tech for the past eight years as its director of international and multicultural student services.
 
Her work in that realm has led to an international student enrollment at Arkansas Tech of more than 300 students representing more than 30 nations.
 
Pennington began her career at Arkansas Tech as a student recruitment and publicity specialist in the Office of Admissions from 1997-2000. She was later employed as director of housing programs in the Office of Residential Life from 2000-03.
 
A 1997 graduate of Arkansas Tech with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology, Pennington earned a Master of Education degree in higher education administration from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 2003.

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