A Trio of Women Taking on New Appointments as Diversity Officers in Higher Education

Jodi Forlizzi was appointed the inaugural associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. She has served as the Charles M. Geschke Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Institute since 2017.

Dr. Forlizzi is a graduate of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she majored in illustration. She holds a master’s degree in interaction design and a Ph.D. in human-computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University.

Jeanne Arnold will serve as the first permanent chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York. Dr.  Arnold most recently served as chief diversity officer at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, a job she started in 2014. Earlier, she held a diversity post at Grand Valley State University in Michigan.

Dr. Arnold holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and social welfare from Pennsylvania State University. She earned a master of social work degree and a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sylvia R. Carey-Butler has been appointed vice president for institutional equity and diversity at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, effective August 16, 2021. She has been serving as chief diversity officer at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. Earlier, she served as assistant chancellor for academic support of inclusive excellence at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh from 2013 to 2019.

A native of Schenectady, New York, Dr. Carey-Butler holds a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Oneonta. She earned a master’s degree in social science from Binghamton Univerity in New York and a Ph.D. in higher education administration and policy from Vanderbilt University in Nashville.