Chancellor Kent Syverud today announced the members of a search committee for a chief diversity officer (CDO). The creation of a CDO position was one of the recommendations of the Chancellor’s Workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion to strengthen the University’s diversity initiatives.
“With this next step, we are moving further toward fulfilling the recommendations of the Workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion. This new position will help us continue to focus on and broaden our initiatives to create a more welcoming and diverse community,” Syverud says. “The chief diversity officer will help guide us there and bring us together in our shared work across campus.”
The chief diversity officer, who will report directly to the Chancellor, will serve on the Chancellor’s Executive Team and provide executive leadership, oversight and vision in the administration of services, programs, policies and procedures related to advancing Syracuse University’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.
In June, Chancellor Syverud appointed Professor Keith A. Alford to the post of interim chief diversity officer, effective July 1. Alford is an associate professor and chair of the Falk College’s School of Social Work.
In its work to find a permanent CDO, the 12-member committee will work with the executive search firm Witt/Kieffer.
The committee will be co-chaired by Dolan Evanovich, senior vice president for enrollment and the student experience, and LaVonda Reed, associate provost for faculty affairs and professor of law.
Other search committee members are the following:
- Peter Blanck, University Professor and chairman, Burton Blatt Institute
- Yousr Dhaouadi, graduate student representative
- James Duah-Agyeman, director, Office of Multicultural Affairs
- Bea González, vice president for community engagement
- khristian kemp-delisser, director, LGBT Resource Center
- Yingyi Ma, director of Asian/Asian American Studies and associate professor of sociology, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
- Suzette Meléndez, teaching professor; director, Children’s Rights and Family Law Clinic; and faculty director of inclusion initiatives, College of Law
- Michael Tick, dean and professor of drama, College of Visual and Performing Arts
- Brooke Waldon, undergraduate student representative
- Barry L. Wells, special assistant to the Chancellor