Patrick Fisher is the CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, following the resignation of Mitch Swain last summer. Most recently, Fisher served as executive director of Erie Arts & Culture for five years, where he was credited with championing artists and boosting the city’s arts community. He established an artist residency program paired with local industry, secured over $1 million in grant funding, oversaw the creation and installation of more than 65 new public art assets and developed a five-year strategic plan. A graduate of Northwood University and Penn State University, Fisher was named to Erie Reader’s “40 under 40” and the Erie Times-News named him as their “Person of the Year” in 2019. Previously, Fisher served two years as the community manager of the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville in Florida.
Joan T.A. Gabel will become the University of Pittsburgh’s 19th chancellor in July. She will be the first woman to lead the university since its 1787 founding. Gabel was formerly president of the University of Minnesota System and Twin Cities campus. She succeeds Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, who will join the faculty as a professor. Under Gabel’s leadership since 2019, the University of Minnesota developed its first systemwide strategic plan that resulted in record-setting graduation rates and annual research expenditures, as well as increased numbers of startups and patents. She also oversaw the completion of a 10-year, $4 billion capital campaign. The University of Minnesota spans five campuses that serve more than 68,000 students and is one of the nation’s largest universities. Prior to leading Minnesota, Gabel served as executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of South Carolina from 2015 to 2019, and dean of the University of Missouri’s College of Business from 2010 to 2015. She has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Haverford College and a law degree from the University of Georgia.
Rhonda Phillips has been named the 20th president of Chatham University and the 10th woman to hold the presidency in Chatham’s 154-year history. She will begin her tenure this summer. Phillips has more than 30 years of experience as an administrator, scholar, and author. Most recently, she was dean of the John Martinson Honors College at Purdue University, an innovative 3,000 student residential honors college that was named one of the Top 20 Honors Colleges in the U.S. Prior to Purdue, Phillips was associate dean for Barrett, The Honors College, at Arizona State University, where she also served as professor and director of the School of Community Resources and Development, and Senior Sustainability Scientist at the Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability. She has held faculty and administrator roles at the University of Florida and the University of Southern Mississippi. Phillips has a Ph.D. in City & Regional Planning from Georgia Tech, an MS in Economics from Georgia Tech and an MS in Economic Development from the University of Southern Mississippi. She is a three-time Fulbright recipient and the author or editor of over 30 books.
Lauren Fajobi has been hired by The Ellis School as the Upper School Division Head and begins her role in July. A native of Piscataway, N.J., she is arriving from Bentonville, Ark., where she serves as the associate director/dean of Upper School and Science Academic Chair at the Thaden School. Prior to joining Thaden in 2020, Fajobi spent five years at international schools in Turkey as both a dean and teacher. She also served as a Spanish and biology teacher in Mississippi at the start of her career. Fajobi has a BA in Spanish Language, Literature, and Culture and BS in Biological Sciences from the University of Maryland, where she was a Banneker/Key Scholar, which is the most prestigious merit scholarship offered to undergraduate Honors College students. She earned an MA in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Mississippi.
Samuel Nemec has been appointed as second oboe with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Nemec will join the PSO at the beginning of next season, in September 2023. He is currently second oboe with the Atlanta Symphony, a position he has held for 11 seasons. He has also performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and as guest principal with the Milwaukee Symphony and KBS Symphony of Korea. During the summer, he performs at the Grand Teton Music Festival. Nemec was born in South Korea and grew up in New Jersey. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School and studied at the Curtis Institute of Music.
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