Dr. Ángel Cabrera, President, Georgia Tech
Dr. Ángel Cabrera joined Georgia Tech as its 12th president in September 2019.
He came to Georgia Tech from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he served as president for seven years. As a business educator, Cabrera has played a key role in advancing professional ethics, internationalization, and corporate social responsibility.
He’s been named a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum, a “Star of Europe” by Businessweek, “Henry Crown Fellow” by the Aspen Institute, and “Great Immigrant” by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He is the first native of Spain to serve as president of an American university.
President Cabrera serves on the boards of the Atlanta Committee for Progress, the Bankinter Foundation for Innovation, the MET Community Advisory Committee, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, and the National Geographic Society.
A Georgia Tech alumnus, President Cabrera earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from the Institute, which he attended as a Fulbright Scholar. He has been quoted by leading global media, including The Economist, BBC, CNN, CNBC, El País, Forbes, The International Herald Tribune, and The New York Times. His op-eds have been published by The Washington Post and the international press, and he has appeared on NPR programs and PBS NewsHour.
Teresa MacCartney, Acting Chancellor, University System of Georgia
Teresa MacCartney became acting chancellor of the University System of Georgia (USG) on July 1, 2021. She oversees 26 public colleges and universities with a $9.8 billion annual budget, 48,000 faculty and staff and more than 341,000 students.
Prior to becoming acting chancellor, MacCartney was USG’s executive vice chancellor for administration. In that role, she oversaw the university system’s day-to-day management of departments that included cybersecurity, leadership and institutional development, economic development, legal affairs, organizational effectiveness, human resources, real estate and facilities, internal audits and safety and security.
Before joining USG, MacCartney served as the state of Georgia’s chief financial officer as well as director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget. She has held several other leadership roles throughout state government, including with the Georgia Student Finance Commission and the Georgia Department of Education. She serves on several boards, including as vice president of Leadership Georgia, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Georgia Lottery Corporation.
MacCartney earned both a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master of public administration degree from Georgia Southern University.
Juanita Hicks, Ed.D. Vice Chancellor, Human Resources, USG
Dr. Juanita Hicks is the Vice Chancellor of Human Resources at the University System of Georgia (USG). Juanita has over 15 years of experience in human resources management with more than seven years in the University System of Georgia. In this role, Hicks seeks to maximize employee and organizational effectiveness with strategic HR efforts that support the Board of Regents’ objectives to be more efficient, affordable, and promote degree attainment in Georgia. She also provides leadership and support to the institutional chief human resources officers (CHROs).
Juanita previously served as the Deputy Director of Human Resources & Special Projects at the Georgia Institute of Technology and as the Associate Vice President of Human Resources & Chief Human Resources Officer at the University of West Georgia. She began her career in human resources in the logistics, manufacturing, and warehousing industries working in a variety of HR generalist roles. An interest in education led her to West Georgia Technical College, where she served as the Assistant Director of Human Resources. As an advocate for people, Juanita is committed to charting new paths in individual and organizational development that supports a collaborative approach to achievement.
Juanita holds a Doctorate of Education from the University of Georgia, a Master’s of Human Resource Development from Clemson University, and a Bachelor’s of Business Administration with a concentration in human resources from the University of West Georgia.
Kelly Fox, Executive Vice President, Administration and Finance, Georgia Tech
As the executive vice president, Kelly Fox provides leadership, oversight, and direction for the Division of Administration and Finance, which includes financial management and reporting; budgeting; human resources; business services; campus sustainability; facilities planning, design, construction, maintenance, and operations; campus safety; information systems and technology; campus planning; and real estate development. More than 1,750 staff report through the Division.
Prior to joining the Georgia Institute of Technology, Kelly led the Strategic Resources and Support team at the University of Colorado Boulder, guiding the financial management and planning activities of the $1.8 billion university budget. Kelly has spent nearly 20 years in higher education at the University of Colorado System Office, Colorado School of Mines, and the University of Colorado Boulder.
Kim Harrington, Ph.D., Associate Vice President, Human Resources, Georgia Tech
Dr. Kim D. Harrington is the chief human resources officer (CHRO) at Georgia Tech.
Kim recently served as the co-lead for the Working @ Georgia Tech working group. She also served as a member of the leadership team for the University System of Georgia’s (USG) Human Capital Management (HCM) Transformation and on the system-wide Comprehensive Administrative Review (CAR) Steering Committee.
Kim joined GTHR in 2015 after 14 years of working at Tech. That year, Kim received the USG Chancellor’s Gold Service Excellence Leadership Award for outstanding performance and commitment to customer service.
Kim has over 25 years of experience in higher education with 21 years at Georgia Tech.
Will Jimerson, Director, Human Resources, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
Will Jimerson serves as the Director of Human Resources for the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech. Will serves in the Dean’s Office as a strategic human resources business partner and administrative officer with a demonstrated experience of transformative leadership in higher education. Will’s current responsibilities encompass strategic planning, faculty affairs, organizational effectiveness, recruitment, professional development, performance management, employee relations, project management, and HR Strategy.
He is the chair of the Georgia Tech Staff Council Compensation and Benefits Committee. Will serves as the co-lead of the hiring process improvement effort for the Administrative Excellence Initiative, and also served as the Chair of the Institute’s Human Capital Management Transformation Committee focused on organizational readiness efforts to prepare for an enterprise resource system transformation. Will was the 2019 recipient of the Georgia Tech Staff Excellence Award and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts Dean’s Distinguished Administrative Service Award. Will has worked in various capacities in human resources and outreach program management during his tenure at Georgia Tech over the past six years. He earned his Master of Education in Higher Education Administration from Georgia Southern University, and his Bachelor of Business Administration in International Business from Valdosta State University.
Shamecia Powers, Assistant Director, Administrative Operations, Office of International Education
Shamecia Powers, MBA, SHRM-CP has served the Georgia Institute of Technology for six years and been an active participant in the Georgia Tech Staff Council during that time. She has over twelve years of experience in Higher Education with a focus on Human Resources for the last ten years. Throughout her career, she has consistently engaged with staff advocacy groups at all her places of employment. She is committed to supporting and promoting the perspectives of her fellow colleagues and values the relationships she builds while doing so.
Rachel Watts, Sr. Training Generalist, Georgia Tech Professional Education
Rachel Watts is a senior training generalist in Professional Education at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her focus is designing and delivering learning experiences for existing and aspiring campus leaders. Rachel started her learning and development career working in the print industry supporting, developing, and delivering training initiatives in a wide range of topics, including leadership, customer service, and profitability. Now working in higher education, she uses research based instructional design and methods to engage learners to achieve results and maximize their potential. Rachel also strives to help foster a culture of inclusive and diverse learning for everyone to help sustain those results. She also serves as adjunct faculty who develops and instructs online courses. Rachel is currently working on her PhD in Learning, Leading, and Organizational Development at the University of Georgia.
Pearl Alexander, Executive Director, Staff Diversity, Inclusion & Engagement, Georgia Tech
Pearl Alexander, JD, PCC, ACC, serves as executive director of diversity, inclusion, and engagement at Georgia Tech. She is a visionary leader who has navigated a progressive 30-year career catalyzing transformations in culture and organizational leadership practices. Currently, Alexander leads learning curricular innovations, professional development, and engagement experiences designed to build and nurture global leadership capacity and model inclusive excellence. She is a certified professional coach and facilitator integrating her expertise in diversity and inclusion principles within her coaching, practices, and coaching consultancy services.
A featured and frequently sought speaker, moderator, and onsite coach at leadership institutes, retreats, and conferences, her audiences have spanned higher education, government, corporate, and international professionals. Alexander’s notable commentary has been shared in various media including The Wall Street Journal, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Profiles in Diversity Journal, Academic Leader, Womenetics, The Jabian Journal, Diversity Woman, and National Public Radio.
Alexander delights in excavating stories, curating and coaching transformative narratives, mentoring fellow introverted leaders of all ages, and practicing improvisation. She shares her gifts to inspire others to access their personal power and step into “wholeness.”
Jason Brewer, AV/IT Support Professional Supervisor, Office of Information Technology, Georgia Tech
Jason’s professional life began at Davidson College, where he served as an audio engineer and instructional technology specialist. Throughout his career at Harvard Business School, Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology, he has worked with hundreds of faculty, staff and students to support virtual classrooms, lecture capture platforms and video conference systems as evolving paradigms in classroom technology.
A graduate of the Educause Management Institute, Jason holds professional certifications from AVIXA, Extron, Scrum and ITIL. He has presented nationally on lecture capture platform Echo360 and at Educause about improving customer satisfaction within academic IT organizations. He currently manages audiovisual support for Georgia Institute of Technology’s Library and Clough Student Center. When not on campus, you can find him exploring running trails throughout Atlanta or playing his drums at music venues across the southeast.
Byron Fitch, Sr. Consultant and Ex-Officio Chair, Staff Council
Byron is a senior consultant for Georgia Tech Strategic Consulting with 14 (+) years of experience in leading organizational development, employee engagement, strategic operations, and change management initiatives among top Fortune 500, government, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations. He currently leads the competency area for creating and implementing organizational culture, community building, and team/leadership development solutions across the Institute. Byron currently serves as the Past Chair/Ex-Officio of Georgia Tech’s Staff Council, whose mission is to engage, inform, and advocate on behalf of the 4,000 (+) staff members working across the Institute.
Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Byron worked for Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in strategic operations and for several years in management consulting for The Hackett Group, Gallup Consulting, and GE Capital. Byron holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Georgia State University. He is a Certified Executive Coach, Certified Change Management Practitioner, Certified DiSC Workplace Facilitator, and Culture Champion through Georgia’s Tech Inclusive Leader’s Academy. Byron is an active member of SHRM, INROADS Alumni Association, and Network for Change and Continuous Innovation (Volunteer Development Committee Chair).
LuWanna Williams, Interim Assistant Vice President of Student Engagement and Director for the Center for Student Engagement, Fort Valley State University
LuWanna L. Williams, serves as the Interim Assistant Vice President of Student Engagement and Director for the Center for Student Engagement at Fort Valley State University. By leading campus wide initiatives such as L.E.A.P., the Center for Financial Advancement Scholars program and the iHelp Volunteer program there has been a renewed focus to prepare students for roles as change agents in the world by administering community service engagement, building career growth programming, and connecting students to professional networks. Under her leadership, career services was rebranded as Career and Professional Development increasing industry partnerships and opportunities for internships and career placement. Additionally, the University gained its first retail partner with JC Penney, and offered the first JCP Suit Up event in Middle Georgia.
Williams serves as the point of contact for a variety of initiatives and partnerships – the Educational Partnership Agreement with the Department of Defense at Robins Air Force Base, the mobilization of a shared lab with Robins Air Force Base with $1.4 million in equipment for student use, the Engineering pipeline agreement with Grand Valley State University, a national higher education initiative with six other institutions called REP4 , as well as academic/ industry relationships with Ford Motor Company Finance Division, AT&T META, the United States Appraisal Foundation and Learning Alliance. Williams has a keen interest in student development and leadership. She created the institutions’ current living and learning community, the Residential Leadership Community, developed the Student Leadership Symposium, and implemented the Truist Emerging Leaders Certification program.
Williams previously served as the associate director of athletics, compliance director, and deputy Title IX officer at Fort Valley State University. She has also served as the Vice Chair for Staff Council.
Prior to joining the Fort Valley State University family, Williams was the executive director of a Small School initiative with Communities in Schools of Georgia, Inc. Williams hails from Mercer University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in middle grades education and Master of Science degree in Education from Troy State University, Master of Science in Higher Education from Capella University and currently pursuing a Doctor of Education degree at the University of North Georgia.
Beth Cabrera, Ph.D., Author, Speaker, Founder of Cabrera Insights
Beth Cabrera is the author of Beyond Happy: Women, Work, and Well-Being. As a writer, researcher, and speaker, she helps individuals achieve greater success and well-being.
After earning her Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from Georgia Tech, Cabrera joined the faculty of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, a leading Spanish university. Upon returning to the U.S., she continued her academic career as a professor of management at Arizona State University, then as a senior research fellow at Thunderbird School of Global Management.
In 2009, she founded Cabrera Insights, a leadership development company, to help individuals and leaders apply principles of positive psychology for enhanced engagement and performance. Her research, published in some of the top academic and professional journals, has received thousands of citations. She has served on numerous editorial boards and was the editor of Management Research. She has also served on the board of directors of several non-profit organizations, including ArtsFairfax, Mason’s Women in Business Initiative, Fall for the Book, and the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics.
