Jenifer Cushman

Jenifer Cushman is an American academic administrator serving as the president of the University of Maine at Augusta since 2023. She was the chancellor and an associate professor of German at Penn State Beaver from 2016 to 2023.

Jenifer Cushman
President of the University of Maine at Augusta
Incumbent
Assumed office July 1, 2023
Preceded by	Joseph S. Szakas (interim) Michael Laliberte
Chancellor of Penn State Beaver
In office July 1, 2016 – June 30, 2023
Preceded by	Carey McDougall (interim) Gary B. Keefer
Succeeded by	Carey McDougall
Personal details
Children	2
Education	Rhodes College Ohio State University
Academic background
Thesis	Unorthodox icons: Russian avant-garde impulses in the works of Rainer Maria Rilke (1996)
Doctoral advisor	Hugo Bekker
Academic work
Discipline	German
Institutions	Togliatti Pedagogical University University of Minnesota Morris College of Wooster Ohio University – Zanesville Penn State Beaver University of Maine at Augusta

Life

Cushman was raised in the Appalachian area of West Virginia.^[1] She earned a B.A. in German and psychology from Rhodes College in 1989.^[2][3] She completed an M.A. (1992) and a Ph.D. (1996) in the department of Germanic languages and literatures at Ohio State University.^[2][3]

In the fall of 1996, Cushman served as a Peace Corps volunteer English instructor at the Togliatti Pedagogical University.^[2][3] From 1996 to 1998, she taught English in Poland including at the Beneficium School of English in Grajewo and the Pedagogical College of Foreign Languages in Suwałki.^[2] In August 1998, Cushman joined the University of Minnesota Morris as an assistant professor of German and Russian.^[2] She was promoted to associate professor of German with tenure in May 2005.^[2] From May 2005 to June 2007, Cushman worked at the College of Wooster as the director of international and off-campus study and an adjunct professor of German.^[2] At Juniata College, she was dean of international education and an associate professor of German from June 2007 to March 2014.^[3] Cushman was a campus dean and associate professor of German at the Ohio University – Zanesville from March 2014 to June 2016.^[2] Cushman was the chancellor and an associate professor of German at Penn State Beaver from July 2016 to June 2023.^[2][4] On July 1, 2023, Cushman became president of the University of Maine at Augusta, succeeding interim president Joseph S. Szakas.^[4][3] Cushman and her husband have two children and reside in Waterville, Maine.^[1]