College gains new senior adviser to the president
GREENSBORO – Dr. Anne C. Hayes has recently been named Bennett College’s new senior adviser to the president/associate vice president for administrative services. Hayes, a native of Halifax County, Virginia, will work closely with Bennett College President Dr. Phyllis Worthy Dawkins while also overseeing the College’s Human Resources and Public Safety departments.
Additionally, she will serve as Bennett’s Board of Trustees liaison.
“We are grateful to have a person of Dr. Hayes’ expertise join the staff at Bennett College,” Dawkins said. “The fact that she brings extensive SACSCOC knowledge and has led diversity efforts is a plus. Bennett College is in the midst of aggressive fundraising and enrollment campaigns, and I am certain Dr. Hayes will be able to help us achieve success in each of those areas.”
Hayes, who recently moved to Greensboro with her husband, Johan Madson, a faculty member at Noble Academy in Greensboro, said she’s very excited to join the staff at Bennett College.
“It is my honor to join the leadership of Bennett College,” Hayes said. “Bennett has such a rich history of higher education and social activism. It’s inspiring to join a college that promotes women’s leadership, civic engagement and public service. I hope my background in strategic planning, accreditation, research, management and relationship-development will be of service to Bennett.”
Hayes earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental studies and religion from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and her Master of Arts degree in religious studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. While at University of Colorado, Boulder, Hayes studied women and Islam and completed ethnographic research in Dakar, Senegal. She was a doctoral fellow at the University of Virginia, where she earned her Ph.D. in social foundations of education in 2012.
Hayes has taught a variety of classes, including religious studies, Books Behind Bars and student development at Southside Virginia Community College, the University of Colorado and at University of Virginia.
Hayes held a three-year doctoral internship with the Curry School of Education Foundation, where she assisted with board meetings, alumni engagement events, board engagement, research, donor relations, grant writing, event planning and wrote for Curry Magazine.
Before coming to Bennett, Hayes served as dean of Institutional Effectiveness and projects at Southside Virginia Community College for over five years. During that time, she served as special assistant to the president under Dr. John J. Cavan, assisting him with special projects and representing the College at community meetings and events. She also led Southside Virginia Community College’s strategic planning, accreditation, research and reporting efforts. Throughout her work, Hayes has developed systems to collect, analyze and share data and information for the purposes of planning and decision-making.
Hayes comes to Bennett College with experience managing large-scale projects, including leadership that helped Southside Virginia Community College successfully complete their SACSCOC Fifth Year Report in 2013 and their Ten Year Reaffirmation Report in 2017. In addition, she served on the president’s cabinet and was chairwoman of the College’s Diversity and Inclusion and Strategic Planning committees.
Hayes also coordinated Southside Virginia Community College’s Campus Within Walls, an associate degree program offered at Lunenburg Correctional Center in Victoria, Virginia. During this time, Hayes built strategic partnerships to find funding sources and increase the program’s visibility.
