Leadership

Linda Essig, MFA, PhD, was appointed Baruch College’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs on July 1, 2021. She previously served as dean of the College of Arts & Letters at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) where she was responsible for nine academic departments, four centers, and the Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery. Prior to Cal State LA, Dr. Essig was director of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Programs for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University (ASU) and founding director of its School of Theatre and Film. She also served as chair of the Department of Theatre & Drama and director of University Theatre at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Essig has authored four books and numerous articles and book chapters on both arts entrepreneurship and theatrical lighting design.

Associate Provost Slavin received his PhD in Historical Musicology from Princeton University. He joined the music faculty of Baruch College in 1986 and also serves on the faculty of the PhD Program in Music at the Graduate Center of CUNY. He has published articles on 15th-century music in international journals, including the Journal of Musicology, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Early Music, Studi Musicali, and Musica Disciplina, and has contributed to the Journal of the American Musicological Society, the new MGG (Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart), Leading Notes, Notes, and the Dictionary of the Middle Ages. He was co-organizer of the First International Conference on Binchois (Fall 1995), is co-editor of Binchois Studies (Oxford University Press, 2000), and is editing the songs of Binchois for a new edition of the composer’s secular music. He is past-president of the Greater New York Chapter of the American Musicological Society.

Associate Provost Slavin monitors the college’s curriculum, the offices that provide support for student learning, and coordinates initiatives in the areas of faculty development related to teaching and faculty engagement.

Associate Provost Fich joined Baruch College as an Assistant Professor of Information Systems in the Fall of 2001 and was promoted to full professor in 2020. Two prestigious awards have distinguished her academic trajectory at Baruch College: In 2011, she received the Sidney Lirtzman Award for outstanding research, teaching, and service at the Zicklin School of Business. In 2013, she received Baruch College’s Presidential Excellence Award for Faculty Service. In late 2020, she was listed among the top researchers in Information Systems in the world, according to a study led by a Stanford professor. She was appointed to her current role in the Spring of 2023.

The Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, Research, and Innovation provides leadership and oversight of the following administrative offices: Office of Academic Administration; Office of Sponsored Projects and Research (SPAR), and Office of Research, Compliance, and Outreach (ORCO).

Assistant Vice President Jenny Provo Quarles received her Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Virginia. She joined Baruch College in August 2022.  Prior to joining the college, she served as Director of Online Initiatives at the University of Virginia and as the Director of Instructional Technology and Online Learning for the Virginia Community College System Office where she oversaw educational technology and online learning for 23 colleges across 40 campuses. Dr. Provo Quarles has spent the past fifteen years in higher education administration at both two and four-year institutions advancing work in digital pedagogies, instructional excellence, curriculum development, and program management. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in gender and leadership, strategic change management, and academic writing. Her research focuses on graduate student retention and the role graduate student advising plays in student success and retention.

Assistant Vice President Provo Quarles will bear primary responsibility for leading and administering Baruch College’s inaugural portfolio of fully online degree programs. Overseeing a unit called the Digital Learning Hub, she collaborates with faculty and staff across the College, including members of the divisions of academic affairs, enrollment management, student affairs, administration and finance, and communications and marketing to support all aspects of online learning, from initial student recruitment through online student degree completion.