President's Cabinet

A proud Westminster alumna, Annalisa Holcombe currently serves the college as the Vice President for Institutional Advancement. She is responsible for the fund and friend raising that supports academic and co-curricular excellence as well as the financial needs of our students. She leads a core group of professionals who are engaged in development, alumni and parent relations, community and government relations, and coaching and mentoring programs. 

Annalisa holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Gore School of Business at Westminster College, a law degree from the University of Utah, and is currently pursuing her PhD in leadership and change at Antioch University. Over the past thirteen years, she has served the college in many capacities, including chief strategy officer, Secretary of the Corporation, and Associate Provost for Integrated Learning. She has overseen the master plan and strategic plan processes for the college, and has commissioned and overseen the production of the college’s economic impact studies. She is the founder of the Westminster alumni mentoring program.

An active civic participant, Annalisa serves on the executive board of the Utah Foundation (an independent public policy research group), and is an institutional planning fellow with the Society for College and University Planners. She is the past chair and founder of the Sugar House Chamber of Commerce, and has served as a community council trustee. She speaks and writes about connection, mentoring, planning, and community engagement.

Bethami (Beth) Dobkin, PhD, is Westminster College's 19th president. She has a distinguished history in higher education as a faculty member and academic leader.

President Beth Dobkin, provost emeritus and professor of communication, served for the past 10 years as provost and vice president for academic affairs of Saint Mary's College of California, a private, comprehensive and Catholic university of approximately 4,000 students. She oversaw the academic vision and operational management of the college, with specific responsibility for academic affairs, enrollment, student affairs, and technology. Dobkin is a commissioner for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and serves on the boards of the Foundation for Hispanic Education and Ujima Family Recovery Services.

Under Dobkin’s direction, Saint Mary’s College achieved upward trends in enrollment, retention, and graduation rates, and she led the college to achieving national recognition in hybrid executive education, performing arts, diversity initiatives, community service, and study abroad; earning inclusion in the 2012 edition of Colleges that Change Lives; and obtaining Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation. Dr. Dobkin’s initiatives led to the highest graduation rates in the college’s history, with a 15 percent increase in the four-year graduation rate of first-time, first-year students during her tenure; acquisition of over $4 million in federal grants as a Minority and Hispanic Serving Institution; and establishment of the College Committee on Inclusive Excellence, a Bias Incident Response Team, campus-wide diversity training, and the college’s first chief diversity officer.

Dr. Dobkin was honored by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the “Most Influential Women in Business in the Bay Area” in 2015 and 2014, and in 2013, she was identified by Diablo Magazine as one of six “Women to Watch.” Previously, she directed the University of Massachusetts Public Debate program and taught at Hartford University, the University of Connecticut, and the College of Our Lady of the Elms. Dr. Dobkin has achieved national recognition for her research and teaching in the area of media and conflict. Her honors have included a fellowship in executive leadership with the American Council on Education and lifetime membership in Phi Kappa Phi. She earned her doctorate and master’s degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and received a bachelor’s degree in speech communication from Humboldt State University.

Curtis is a graduate of the University of Utah with a bachelor of arts in accounting. He is a certified public accountant and has worked in higher education for over 28 years. He began his career working in the travel industry as an assistant controller. After finishing his undergraduate degree, he worked for the national accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand where he specialized in higher education, mining, retail, investment, and governmental industry clients. Five years later, Curtis started as the chief business officer at Westminster. He was promoted to assistant VP of financial affairs, and since 2007, has served as the vice president of finance and administration. Curtis supervises the administrative business office, human resources, campus facilities, conferencing, auxiliary services, and endowment management. He is active in local nonprofit organizations and currently serves on the board of the Utah Parent Center, a nonprofit organization that supports parents who have children with disabilities. Curtis and his wife, Faith, have four children. Curtis likes to hike, run, bike, ski, and do anything outdoors.

Emmalee joined the Westminster community in 2011 as the executive assistant for Michael Bassis. Since coming to the college, Emmalee has worked under four presidents. In her current role as Executive Assistant to the President and Director of Board Relations, she manages President Dobkin's schedule, coordinates with other administrative departments, and organizes Board of Trustees meetings.

Prior to Westminster, Emmalee spent 19 years working in banking as a teller, new-account officer, operations manager, branch manager, and administrative assistant. She also spent time traveling throughout the western United States to oversee new branch and market openings. Emmalee grew up in Salt Lake and attended Dixie State College. Emmalee now lives in the Sugar House area with her husband and two daughters.

Jennifer Dahl serves as the interim vice president of enrollment management.  As the chief enrollment officer, she supervises admissions and financial aid functions for first-year, transfer, international, and graduate students.  Jennifer has a passion for learning and is thrilled to funnel this passion to students who want to pursue a liberal arts education.

Jennifer graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in Communications & Journalism and a BA in Social Relations & Policy from MSU’s James Madison College; an intense public policy program in a liberal arts setting.  Jennifer’s professional career begin her junior year of college.   She spent 24 years in media and strategic marketing working with more than 100 TV/radio stations in 75 markets before transitioning to higher education.  

 Jennifer is a first generation college student and believes in access for all students.    She currently serves as Vice President of the Tag Ranch Board.  She was also one of the first members of the Utah Debate Commission, YWCA fundraising commission and Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program.    Jennifer has two daughters.  In her spare time, Jennifer loves to travel, horseback ride and hike Utah’s incredible mountains with her girls.   

Julie Freestone is the executive director of human resources for Westminster College. Julie came to Westminster in 2014 after spending 10 years as the director of human resources at Sundance Institute. At Sundance, Julie managed HR functions for offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Park City. Prior to Sundance, Julie held leadership roles in human resources at the University of Utah. Julie grew up in Salt Lake City and Naperville, Illinois. She returned to Utah to complete her undergraduate studies at the University of Utah. She then extended her education with a master of public administration with an emphasis in human resource management.

With over 20 years of experience in HR, Julie is passionate about helping Westminster continue to be a great place to work. Julie spends much of her free time mountain biking, cross-country skiing, and gardening at her home in Sugar House.

Karnell McConnell-Black is a student development professional and organizational ethnographer with 11-plus years’ experience in higher education administration. He currently serves as the Dean of Students at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. In that role, he provides leadership for programs and services that enhance student success, student engagement, and student development. Karnell, a Dallas, Texas native and first-generation college student, attended Loyola University-Chicago, earning his bachelor’s degree in Communication and master’s degree in Higher Education Administration. He is currently a doctoral student at the University of Utah focusing on Higher Education Administration.

Kathryn Holmes joined Westminster College in 2016 as general counsel, bringing her broad experience as a lawyer, executive management leader, and business advisor. With over 30 years of experience, she has previously served as general counsel for two organizations, as a lawyer in private practice, and as an expert advisor to federal regulatory agencies in Washington, DC. In 2017 she assumed additional duties as chief risk officer. In this role, she oversees the college’s security, safety, and risk management programs.

Kathryn completed a bachelor of science at the University of Utah, and received a master's degree and juris doctorate from the University of New Mexico. She has co-authored one book and numerous articles and has been a frequent public speaker. In her free time, Kathryn enjoys traveling, hiking, live music, and collecting art of local Utah artists.

A leader in the national Honors community, Richard is president-elect of the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC), a member of the NCHC Board of Directors, and an editorial board member of HIP: Honors in Practice. He has served as an Honors consultant at more than a dozen colleges and universities around the country.

Richard has delivered more than 50 national presentations on Honors education and regularly publishes in journals like JNCHC: The Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council. In 2011, he was named an NCHC Fellow; and in 2016 he received NCHC’s Sam Schuman Award for Excellence at a Four-Year Institution.

Over the past 25 years, Professor Badenhausen has published widely on the work of T. S. Eliot and modernist literature, including T. S. Eliot and the Art of Collaboration (Cambridge UP). At Westminster, he teaches classes in the humanities, theories of place, and trauma studies. He is the 2014 recipient of the college’s Gore Excellence in Teaching award and two-time winner of Westminster’s Manford A. Shaw Publication Prize.

Richard is the acting Interim Provost.

Sheila Rappazzo Yorkin is the chief marketing officer at Westminster College. Previously, Sheila worked at Economic Development Corporation of Utah as the marketing and communications director promoting corporate recruitment and expansion in the state of Utah. Sheila spent the first part of her career with Salt Lake City Corporation in communications and policy roles and was the managing director of the Gallivan Utah Center during the 2002 Olympics. Sheila is passionate about the inclusivity of women in education, business, and the community, and has served on several boards, including Discovery Gateway Children's Museum, Utah River's Council, KRCL Advisory Committee, and Salt Lake Acting Company. Sheila is also a member of the Utah Women's Forum.

Sheila hails from the East Coast, having grown up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and Boca Raton, Florida. Her studies in political science at the University of Richmond prepared her for an intended career in Washington, DC as a lobbyist and policy maker, but a post-college stint in Jackson Hole, Wyoming turned her into a mountain-loving westerner. Sheila enjoys vacations with her family in Maine and upstate New York during the summer. She lives in the 9th and 9th area of Salt Lake City with her husband Andy and three children. They love skiing, biking, hiking, and being part of their dynamic neighborhood.

Tamara N. Stevenson, Ed.D. is an associate professor of Communication at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her roster of courses includes human, organizational, and intercultural communication, and professional writing. She joined Westminster College in 2012 as a postdoctoral teaching fellow in Speech Communication; she joined the full-time faculty as an assistant professor the following year.

Among Dr. Stevenson’s range of service activities at the College, which includes mentoring students in the Legacy Scholars program, she was the faculty fellow of diversity, equity, and inclusion from 2015 to 2018. Highlights of this three-year appointment consisted of coordinating the Bastian Foundation Diversity Lecture Series. Also, she served as co-chair of the Expect The Great College and Career Readiness Event, hosted by the College in 2017. Westminster is the only private institution in Utah to host this statewide event designed to increase college and career awareness and readiness for African, African-American, and Black Students in the state of Utah. Currently, Dr. Stevenson serves a community co-host on KRCL RadioActive (90.9FM) with Executive Producer Lara Jones two Mondays a month; the name of the show is “#blacklight” that discusses race, gender, news, politics, and culture from an intersectional perspective.
Hailing from Detroit, Michigan and a first-generation college student, Dr. Stevenson attended Wayne State University in Detroit to major in journalism on a full academic scholarship designed to diversify print and broadcast newsrooms in the United States. After earning her bachelor’s degree in journalism and completing her master’s degree in organizational communication and public relations from Wayne State, she worked in corporate communication in various organizations and industries in the metropolitan Detroit area for more than a decade, including automotive, health care, and public (regional) education. At the same time, she was an adjunct instructor in speech communication at a number of public and private, two- and four-year colleges and universities. Dr. Stevenson later returned to school to earn a specialist of arts degree and subsequently, a doctorate in educational leadership (higher education administration) with a concentration on community college leadership from Eastern Michigan University, located in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
As a scholar-practitioner, Dr. Stevenson’s research explores the internal and external communicative (rhetorical) practices of educational institutions as organizational sites of power through a critical race lens. Her research has been recognized by the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor’s National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) with a 2009 “Emerging Diversity Scholar Award” given to acknowledge her “as a promising contributor to research, practice, or teaching related to diversity”. NCID later asked her to contribute a chapter based on her dissertation research (which examined the racialized role stressors of African American faculty at public community colleges) to their edited volume, “Transforming Understandings of Diversity in Higher Education: Demography, Democracy, & Discourse”, which was released in 2016.