Four Women Who Have Been Appointed Diversity Officers at Colleges and Universities

Alesia LeSane was promoted to assistant director for multicultural education and student success in the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Education at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. She was an undergraduate admissions officer at the university with a focus on recruitment initiatives on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

LeSane holds a bachelor’s degree in communications with a minor in community and justice studies from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

Amanda Ybarra was named the executive diversity officer at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, Washington. She has taught sociology at the college since 2013.

Ybarra earned a bachelor’s degree with a focus in sociology and media from Evergreen State College in Olympia. She holds a master’s degree, with a dual focus in public sociology and teaching sociology, from what is now California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt.

Nkenge Friday has been named senior assistant vice chancellor for strategic initiatives in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is the former associate dean and director of diversity and inclusion at Marietta College in Ohio.

Dr. Friday received a bachelor’s degree from Tougaloo College in Mississippi. She earned master’s degrees at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well as an educational doctorate from Nova Southeastern University.

Jamila Jefferson-Jones, a professor of law at the University of Kansas, has been given the added duties of associate dean for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at the law school. Before joining KU Law this past July, Jefferson-Jones was a professor of law and associate director of property, equity, and justice for the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University School of Law. She was previously a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.

Professor Jefferson-Jones is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School.