Four Women Who Have Been Assigned to New Roles in Higher Education Relating to Diversity

Suzette Meléndez was appointed faculty fellow for the Office of Strategic Initiatives in Academic Affairs and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Syracuse University in New York. She is a teaching professor of family law and has served as the College of Law’s director of the Children’s Rights and Family Law clinics for two decades. In 2021, she was named the College of Law’s first associate dean for equity and inclusion.

Professor Meléndez is a graduate of Binghamton University of the State University of New York System. She earned a juris doctorate at the University of Connecticut.

Lita Little Giddins was appointed associate vice president in the Office of Belonging at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Prior to this appointment, Little Giddins worked as the coordinator of diversity, collaboration, and inclusion in the College of Family, Home, and Social Science at the university.

Little Giddins holds a bachelor’s degree in sociocultural anthropology and a master of social work degree from Brigham Young University.

Alicia Richardson has been named the diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging officer at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. Previously, Richardson had a 13-year career with Schenectady County Community College of the State University of New York System, for which she has been serving as interim chief diversity officer since September 2021.

Richardson is a graduate of the University of St. Joseph in West Hartford, Connecticut, where she majored in English language and literature. She holds a master’s degree in Africana studies from the University at Albany of the State University of New York System.

B. Afeni McNeely Cobham has been named the first associate vice chancellor and vice provost for equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. Dr. McNeely Cobham was the inaugural chief equity and inclusion officer at Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan, serving from 2018 to 2022. Earlier, Dr. McNeely Cobham served as an associate dean at Connecticut College, associate provost of student life and affiliate faculty at the University of Denver, and assistant dean at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Dr. McNeely Cobham is a graduate of Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in higher education administration from Indiana University.