TAHLEQUAH — Northeastern State University recently welcomed two new members to the institution’s administrative team during the fall semester.

Dr. Richard L. Carhart was appointed as the executive director of international studies, a newly created position at NSU, and Dr. Sheila Collins was named the new executive director of libraries.

As the head of international studies, Carhart will be responsible not only for recruiting students from other countries to attend NSU, but also building relationships with universities in other countries to create exchange programs for NSU students to live and study abroad.

“The current administration has made a push for the university to go international,” Carhart said. “We have an obligation to better prepare our students for a world that is much more global than ever before in our history.”

Carhart has worked extensively abroad in higher education. He has served as the president of Stamford International College in Petchaburi, Thailand, dean of student affairs at the Huron University branch campus located in Tokyo, Japan, principal and director of the Southern Illinois University – Carbondale campus in Nakajo, Japan, and executive director of the Fulbright Commission in Jakarta, Indonesia. He has also served as provost and chief executive officer of the Hawaii Technology Institute in Honolulu, dean of Student Services at Maui Community College for the University of Hawaii, director of the Job Training and Employment Center at Kauai Community College for the University of Hawaii, and director of the Psychological Counseling and Evaluation Center at the University of Nevada – Las Vegas.

Carhart earned his bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from Marquette University in Milaukee, Wis. in 1969. He went on to earn a Master of Arts in Human Learning and Development/Human Relations Services from Governors State University in University Park, Ill., in 1974, and a doctorate of education in counselor education/student personnel services administration from Northern Illinois University – DeKalb in 1977.

Collins took over as head of the NSU libraries from Tom Messner, director of the Broken Arrow campus library, who served as interim director while a search was underway for an executive director.

In her position as executive director of libraries, she oversees services at the John Vaughan Library, located on the Tahlequah campus, as well at the branch libraries in Broken Arrow and Muskogee.

No stranger to library management, Collins has served as library director of Minot State University in North Dakota, library manager at Mid-State Technical College in Wisconsin, library director at Northwest State Community College in Archbold, Ohio, library director/associate professor at Defiance College in Defiance, Ohio, head of reference at Lima Public Library in Ohio, law library director at Eastman and Smith Ltd., head of the Collection Services Department at George Washington University Law Library in Washington, D.C., and head of Reference and Collection Development at Ohio Northern University Law Library.

Collins earned her juris doctorate in 1989 and master of library science in 1993 from the University of Buffalo. She earned her undergraduate degree from the State University of New York College at Brockport in 1972.