Four Women Who Have Been Appointed to Diversity Posts in Higher Education

Jamila Lee-Johnson is the inaugural assistant dean of inclusive excellence for the Graduate School at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Most recently, she served as the equity, diversity, and inclusion manager for the University of Wisconsin System.

Dr. Lee-Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree in mass media arts from Clark Atlanta University. She earned a master’s degree in student affairs administration from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Katherine King is the new assistant vice president for the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Cornell’s Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX is responsible for training, education, and prevention efforts in the areas of discrimination, harassment, and sexual and related misconduct. She was the institutional equity officer at the SUNY Upstate Medical University, in Syracuse, New York. Earlier, King was an assistant U.S. Attorney.

King earned a juris doctorate at the New York University School of Law.

Donyale R. Padgett was appointed interim chief diversity officer at Wayne State University in Detroit. Professor Padgett has been a faculty member in the department of communication at the university since the fall of 2002.

Dr. Padgett holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a concentration in public relations and a master’s degree in organizational communication and public relations from Wayne State University. She earned a Ph.D. from Howard University in rhetoric and intercultural communication.

Laura Renée Chandler is the new associate provost and dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Dr. Chandler comes to Colby from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, where she was the inaugural vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Earlier, she was director of the Center for Diversity and Community at the University of South Dakota.

Dr. Chandler received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in history from Rice University in Houston.