Directors of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Roles, Responsibilities, and Expectations

Directors of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DDEIs) will advance, promote, and cultivate diverse, inclusive, and equitable departments. Collectively the DDEIs will constitute a community of advocates and partners. Working with the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, they will assist in implementing best practices and serve as a point of contact in their department/program for issues relating to diversity, inclusion, and equity.  Such issues include but are not limited to the following: 

  1. Hiring and retention of faculty (and, where applicable, postdoctoral scholars);
  2. Graduate student recruitment, retention, and curriculum;
  3. Undergraduate student recruitment, retention, and curriculum;
  4. Staff hiring, treatment, and retention; and
  5. Cultivating a diverse, inclusive, and equitable departmental climate

Duration of the DDEI’s tenure

DDEIs are appointed by the chair of their department. DDEIs will serve a 3-year term and they are limited to 2 terms. Junior faculty, both general and tenure track may not be appointed as a DDEI for their department or program.

What does the DDEI do?

All DDEIs:

  • Attend at least 2 DDEI meetings each semester.
  • Meet individually with the AD for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion once per semester.
  • Provide updates and present information during their departmental faculty meetings when appropriate, and at least once a semester.
  • In departments and programs with graduate programs: Meet with prospective graduate students during recruitment visits, and all enrolled graduate students at least once a year.
  • Participate as an external member in the chair/director search process.
  • Participate in the faculty search and hiring process. At a minimum: join the AD for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the search launch meeting with HR and the search chair, review the position description prior to posting, assist with the outreach to diverse candidates, provide feedback regarding the search process (including but not limited to rubric and criteria for long and shortlists of candidates), and meets with candidates during interviews. 

Focus Areas

Each DDEI selects one or two focus areas from the following list for their department or program each year in consultation with their department and the AD for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

  • Faculty (and, where applicable, postdoc) hiring and retention.
  • Graduate student recruitment, retention, and curriculum.
  • Undergraduate student recruitment, retention, and curriculum.
  • Staff hiring, treatment, and retention.
  • Cultivating a diverse, inclusive, and equitable departmental climate.
  • Other activities that the DDEI determines are critical for their department’s role in advancing, promoting, and cultivating a diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment.

DDEI compensation: $2500 allocated to their research budgets per year of tenure. 

Directors of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Current directors are listed, by department, below.

American Studies: Lisa Goff
Anthropology: Lise Dobrin
Art: Amy Chan
Astronomy: Ilse Cleeves
Biology: Masashi Kawasaki
Blandy Experimental Farm: Kyle Haynes
Chemistry: Rebecca Pompano
Classics: Andrej Petrovic
Drama: Katelyn Hale Wood
East Asian Languages, Literatures, & Cultures: Tomomi Sato
Economics: John McLaren
English/Creative Writing: Caroline Rody
Environmental Sciences:  Xi Yang
French Literature: Claire Lyu
History: Debbie Kang
Mathematics: Ben Hayes
Media Studies: Bruce Williams
Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures: Robert Hueckstedt
Music: Bonnie Gordon
Philosophy: Elizabeth Barnes
Physics: Dinko Pocanic
Politics: Annie Meng
Psychology: Noelle Hurd and Jazmin Brown-Iannuzzi
Religious Studies: Natasha Heller
Sociology: Krishan Kumar
Spanish, Italian, Portuguese: Allison Bigelow
Statistics: Dan Spitzner  
Women, Gender, and Sexuality: Doug Meyer
Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies: Lisa Shutt