New Faculty Members Named to Provost’s Advisory Council for the Enhancement of Faculty Diversity
I am pleased to announce that several new faculty members are joining the 2014-2015 Provost’s Advisory Council for the Enhancement of Faculty Diversity, a group that plays a key advisory role in helping to shape the University’s efforts to attract, advance and retain a diverse faculty of outstanding scholars. More broadly, the Advisory Council is committed to supporting an inclusive and equitable environment for all members of the Columbia community. These efforts are essential to our goal of strengthening academic excellence. The four newly appointed members have a strong commitment to advancing these goals. They are:
Ana Abraido-Lanza, PhD
Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences
Mailman School of Public Health
Program Director, Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity
Walter Bockting, PhD
Professor of Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry and Nursing)
College of Physicians & Surgeons and School of Nursing
Co-Director, LGBT Health Initiative
Alondra Nelson, PhD
Professor of Sociology
Dean of the Social Sciences, Arts & Sciences
Co-Director, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Council
Samuel Roberts, PhD
Associate Professor of History and Sociomedical Sciences
Arts & Sciences and Mailman School of Public Health
Director, Institute for Research in African-American Studies
They join a number of continuing Advisory Council members in the ongoing implementation of the Faculty and Pipeline Diversity Program that President Bollinger and I announced in 2012. The goal of this program is to attract, advance and retain a diverse faculty of outstanding female and underrepresented minority scholars who more closely reflect the composition of national pools of qualified candidates in their respective disciplines. This effort is backed by a shared financial commitment of $30 million, comprised of $15 million from the University’s central budget matched by contributions from individual schools.
Council members also recommend approaches to enhance the presence, prominence and role of women and underrepresented minorities in campus leadership positions; advise on the design and implementation of programs to enhance the career success of junior faculty; suggest possible ways of expanding the scope of diversity efforts; and provide guidance on diversity-related public lectures, symposia and other events. Moreover, they join me in championing the University’s diversity mission within their academic units, across campus and among external stakeholders.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank outgoing members, Nabila El-Bassel, Saidiya Hartman, and Kenneth Shepard, for their service on the Advisory Council over the last two years.
The members of the 2014-2015 Advisory Council are:
Ana Abraido-Lanza, PhD
Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health
Walter Bockting, PhD
Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians & Surgeons
School of Nursing
Andrew R. Davidson, PhD, MBA
Office of the Provost
Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health
Anke A. Ehrhardt, PhD
Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians & Surgeons
Ruben L. Gonzalez, Jr., PhD
Department of Chemistry, Arts & Sciences
Fredrick Harris, PhD
Department of Political Science, Arts & Sciences
Helen H. Lu, PhD
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science
College of Dental Medicine
Dennis A. Mitchell, DDS, MPH – Chair, Provost’s Advisory Council
Office of the Provost
College of Dental Medicine
Frances Negrón-Muntaner, PhD
Department of English and Comparative Literature, Arts & Sciences
Director, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Alondra Nelson, PhD
Office of the Dean and Department of Sociology, Arts & Sciences
Jorge Otero-Pailos, PhD
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Katherine W. Phillips, PhD
Columbia Business School
Samuel Roberts, PhD
Department of History, Arts & Sciences
Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health
Director, Institute for Research in African-American Studies
Elizabeth S. Scott, JD
Columbia Law School
Anne L. Taylor, MD
Office of the Dean and Department of Medicine, College of Physicians & Surgeons
Each member of the Advisory Council possesses a deep commitment to advancing faculty diversity at Columbia; together, they represent the enormous scope of Columbia’s academic community. I am deeply grateful to them for joining me in this essential work.
John H. Coatsworth
Provost