Seven Women Who Have Been Appointed to Diversity Positions in Higher Education

Last week a WIAReport post reported on eight women who had been appointed to diversity posts at U.S. colleges and universities. The hiring of diversity and inclusion officers at colleges and universities remains at a brisk pace. Here is another group of women who have recently been hired to administrative posts dealing with diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Annette S. Vincent will be the inaugural associate dean of diversity and climate at Carnegie Mellon University’s campus in Qatar. She joined the faculty at the university in 2012 and has served as program director for biological sciences since 2016.

Dr. Vincent holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore.

Maria Dixon Hall, senior advisor to the president for cultural intelligence and associate professor of corporate communications in the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, was appointed to the newly created full-time position of chief diversity officer at the university.

Dr. Hall is a graduate of the University of Alabama. She holds two master’s degrees from Emory University in Atlanta and a Ph.D. in organizational communication from the University of Missouri.

Belinda Robnett, a professor of sociology, has been named vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was the inaugural associate dean for faculty development and diversity in the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. Earlier, Dr. Robnett was a professor of sociology and of women’s studies at the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Robnett is a graduate of Stanford University, where she majored in psychology. She holds master’s degrees from Harvard University, Princeton University, and the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan.

Crystal Williams has been promoted to the new post of vice president and associate provost for community and inclusion at Boston University. She was an associate provost for diversity and inclusion. Williams is a professor of English in the College of Arts & Sciences at the university. Before coming to Boston University in 2017, Professor Williams taught at Bates College in Maine.

Professor Williams holds a bachelor’s degree from New York University and a master of fine arts degree from Cornell University.

Petra Bonfert-Taylor has been named associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She is a professor of engineering at the college.

Professor Bonfert-Taylor holds three degrees including a Ph.D. from the Technical University of Berlin in Germany.

Sheree Ohen has been named the inaugural associate dean of diversity, inclusion, and belonging for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. For the past four years, Ohen served as chief officer of diversity and inclusion at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

A California native, Ohen received a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and a juris doctorate from Golden Gate University School of Law.

Anne Barangera teaching professor in the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, will serve as the college’s first associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion. She joined the College of Chemistry in 2011.

Dr. Barangera earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Cchemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.