Brandeis named Mark Brimhall-Vargas as the university’s first chief diversity officer (CDO) and vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion on Wednesday, Nov. 2.
Brimhall-Vargas, who will begin his job as CDO at Brandeis on Jan. 11, comes from Tufts University. At Tufts he held the position of CDO and associate provost.
“As CDO, Brimhall-Vargas will work closely with the president, provost, academic deans, faculty, students, trustees and staff to ensure that the goals of diversity and inclusion are embraced across the Brandeis campus,” according to a press release sent out on Wednesday.
At Tufts, Brimhall-Vargas undertook initiatives such as educating members of the Tufts community on how to recruit and hire female candidates and candidates of color for open staff and faculty positions.
He also built a website dedicated to publishing data relevant to progress made in diversity efforts, according to an article in The Tufts Daily. The dashboard page is listed under “strategic themes” on the Tufts website and features statistics, events and articles centering on diversity. Graphics at the top of the dashboard display data on the race/ethnicity of Tufts students and faculty.
Brimhall-Vargas hopes to do something similar to these initiatives here at Brandeis, and to increase transparency regarding data collection. He wants to be “receptive to whatever comes forward,” he explained in an interview open to the Brandeis community.
“My first priority will be to get to know the students and fully understand their concerns and needs,” Brimhall-Vargas said in Wednesday’s press release. He plans to do this by first observing students’ needs and then creating policies that address those needs, he said in the interview.
At Brandeis, Brimhall-Vargas will work closely with the goals listed in the Implementation Plan for Diversity and Inclusion, a plan created following student demands made during the Ford Hall 2015 movement last year. Although it can take years for the process of changing and diversifying the curriculum to become fully implemented, it is possible for it to shift, he explained.
“Adding this key position to our management team reflects our commitment to fostering an academic and campus culture that lives up to our values of diversity and inclusion,” said President Ron Liebowitz in Wednesday’s press release. “It became clear to us that, although it is our collective responsibility to ensure that our campus is diverse and inclusive, we needed the full-time focus of an experienced and dedicated leader to elevate our efforts.”
Over the past few months, the Brandeis CDO Search Committee evaluated 56 candidates, interviewed seven in person and invited the final four to campus to talk to students in September. “Very quickly, it became clear to the search committee and to members of the community who met with Mark that he has the experience, intellectual heft and people skills needed to move us forward,” stated Professor and former Interim Provost Irv Epstein, the leader of the search committee, in the press release.
Liebowitz announced the appointment of Brimhall-Vargas as CDO and vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion in a campus-wide email.
In addition to being CDO at Tufts, Brimhall-Vargas worked for 17 years in various diversity management positions at the University of Maryland, College Park, including the position of deputy CDO.
