NJCU Announces Important Leadership Updates
Dear Members of the NJCU Community,
We are pleased to share with you the news of four important leadership changes at the university, and with mixed emotions, announce the retirement of a long-time university leader whose work has led to the furtherance of the university mission.
First, we share the bittersweet news of the retirement of Alfred E. Ramey, Jr., J.D., who has served as University Counsel since 2006. Al, who in his role as University Counsel, provides legal services to the Board of Trustees, the President, and the University, will retire from NJCU effective June 30. The university will soon begin a search to succeed Al in this critical role to ensure a seamless transition.
Next, we are pleased to announce that beginning July 1, 2022, Dr. Marvin Walker, the current Associate Dean of the College of Professional Studies, will serve as Acting Dean of the College of Professional Studies. I want to thank the members of the search committee for their dedicated work late in the academic search cycle; we look forward to a reconvened search early in the fall term.
We are also happy to announce that Dr. Michael Edmondson, who has served as Director of NJCU @ Fort Monmouth and Interim Dean of the College of Professional Studies will now focus solely as Executive Director of NJCU @ Fort Monmouth. He will direct all operations of the Monmouth location with the aim of serving students in the central part of the state who seek an affordable and excellent public education.
Next, please join us in welcoming Suman Taneja to NJCU in the role of Senior Advisor to the President and Chief Institutional Effectiveness Officer (CIEO) in the Office of the University President. He will serve as a member of the President’s senior leadership team. In that capacity, Suman will oversee the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, and will have overall responsibility for matters related to institutional research, external accreditation, academic assessment and assessment of student learning and institutional effectiveness. Additionally, he will support business process development, implement strategic opportunities and tools to enable improvements and efficiencies in the university’s operations, and develop strategies for data collection, tracking, analysis and reporting, which will support data informed decision making. Taneja will join the NJCU community the week of May 2.
Finally, we are pleased to welcome Stacy-Ann Brown to NJCU as our new University Director of Financial Aid in the Division of Enrollment Management and Student Success. Stacy-Ann will oversee the Office of Financial Aid and partner across campus to lead and support the overall university financial aid strategy and execution. She joined the university community on April 18.
Al Ramey
In addition to his role as University Counsel on campus, Al Ramey has served in the vital capacity as University liaison with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office as well as outside special counsel on matters related to legal, contractual, regulatory and other issues. Ramey serves as the Ethics Liaison Officer and the Open Public Records Act Officer for the University.
Ramey received his B.A. from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., where he majored in Economics and earned a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia. After graduating from law school, he clerked for the Honorable Merritt Lane, Jr., A.J.S.C., Superior Court of New Jersey. Al is a member of the bar in New Jersey, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Ramey has completed the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Institute of Education Management Program.
Al was a past member of the Board of Trustees of Rutgers University. While on the Board of Trustees, he served as a trustee member of the Policy and Planning Committee of the Board of Governors and as the Chair of the Trustees’ Committees for Livingston College and the School of Law-Camden.
Dr. Marvin Walker
Before embarking on an academic career, Dr. Walker served 10 years as a federal employee within the U.S. government, first serving as a Business Consultant with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Health, Center for Information Technology. He served in numerous senior leadership roles in the intelligence community promoting cyber security best practices, information sharing, and critical infrastructure protection. Dr. Walker served as Executive Officer with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Intelligence and Analysis, leading private sector classified intelligence programs, national security strategy, public policy, diplomacy, and international affairs with coordinated efforts focused on national security programs designed to prevent domestic terrorism activities within the United States. He served as a Program Analyst with the U.S. Department of Defense, responsible for financial and contract audit readiness oversight across the U.S. Army and the DoD. Before his government civilian service, he served eight years as a U.S. Marine in various leadership roles across the U.S. Marine Corps in the Infantry, from 1998 – 2006 including numerous deployments to Africa, East Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, and a combat tour in Iraq in 2003.
Dr. Walker earned a B.A. in Business Administration from Columbia College, a Bachelor of Theology from the International Theological Seminar of California, an MBA from Webster University, and a Doctorate in Law and Policy from Northeastern University.
Dr. Michael Edmondson
Prior to joining NJCU, Dr. Edmondson served Augustana College (IL) as an Associate Vice President in the Career/Opportunities/Research/Exploration (CORE) Center. Dr. Edmondson and his team created the nation’s first undergraduate professional preparation tracking system - The Viking Score.
The author of seven books, Dr. Edmondson received a B.A. in History from Cabrini College, a M.A. in History from Villanova University, and a Ph.D. in History from Temple University.
Suman Taneja
Currently working as the Executive Director of Technology Strategy at the City University of New York (CUNY), Suman is overseeing a portfolio of strategic IT initiatives with focus on student success, productivity and service improvements and cost savings. There, he is responsible for strategic enterprise technology solutions for a University with over a half million students and 26 colleges.
Prior to joining CUNY, Suman worked for IBM Corporation for over 30 years, rapidly rising through the technical, marketing and consulting ranks to the position of Partner and Practice Lead in IBM Business Consulting Services. During his career at IBM, Suman led various quality circles focused on process and customer service improvements. He won several distinguished awards at IBM for excellence in customer service, productivity improvements and team building. These awards, which were given to a select group of IBMers, include the Customer Champion Award, National Director of the IBM Achiever’s Forum, Management Excellence Awards and Professional Leadership Award.
Some of the mission critical initiatives led by Suman during his time with CUNY include developing solutions to address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic — such as on-line proctoring and symptom and vaccination tracking for students and employees — and a $300 million enterprise resource planning (ERP) project for CUNY aimed at streamlining financial, HR and student administration functions.
Stacy-Ann Brown
While at William Paterson and in previous roles, she established herself as a change-agent, innovative leader and advisor. She has led strategic business process development and strengthened inter-departmental relationships, while maintaining compliance with Federal, State, and Institutional Regulations and policies.
Brown earned a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Montclair State University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from William Paterson.
Please join us in congratulating Al Ramey on his well-earned retirement, thanking Dr. Edmondson for his interim leadership of the College of Professional Studies since Fall 2019, wishing Dr. Walker well in his new role of Acting Dean beginning this July, and welcoming Suman Taneja and Stacy-Ann Brown to the university.
Sue Henderson, Ph.D.
President, ¿ìèÆƽâ°æ
Provost and Senior Vice President