ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 15, 1997 TAG: 9703170061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG THE ROANOKE TIMES
Powers served in the U.S. Army from 1981 to 1989 and was chosen from a field of 86 applicants.
Just five months before the first female cadets begin their lives as "rats" at Virginia Military Institute, the school has named a woman to serve as assistant commandant of cadets.
Maj. Sherrise Powers will start her job Monday. She will be the first woman to hold the post and will be one of two assistant commandants working under Col. Keith Dickson.
Powers, who served in the U.S. Army from 1981 to 1989, was chosen from a field of 86 applicants - male and female - from across the nation.
She was unavailable for interviews Friday. In a VMI news release, Powers said she looked forward to working with VMI's staff "toward the assimilation of women into the Corps of Cadets."
"I think we were wanting someone in the commandant's office who will be able to relate well to women cadets next fall, I don't think there is any doubt about that," Col. Mike Strickler, VMI spokesman, said Friday. But "she's going to be involved in all aspects of the everyday life of the Corps of Cadets - not just for the women."
Still, he said, Powers "brings the experience of a woman who has been in the military, and that will certainly help us," he said.
In the Army, Powers held positions of parachutist, criminal investigator and instructor. She joined the reserves in 1989.
Powers received her associate's degree in criminology from Central Texas College, a bachelor's in political science at Fayetteville State University and her law degree from Regent University School of New York.
At VMI, she will receive a salary of $31,000.
Terri Wheaton Reddings joined the staff as the institute's first female admissions officer in November. Twenty of the institute's 128 faculty members are women.
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