Vice President for Equity and Inclusion

Vice President for Equity and Inclusion

University of New Mexico

Albuquerque, NM

The University of New Mexico (UNM), the state’s flagship institution, seeks a Vice President for Equity and Inclusion (VPEI) to amplify its mission and impact. The VPEI will be a proven leader who will drive a strategic path towards the transformation of UNM, raising the University’s national prominence as an institution that embodies research, teaching, and service excellence at the nexus of diversity-equity-inclusion. The VPEI will advance excellence-and-equity across all dimensions of the academic mission, culture, and climate in ways that improve opportunities for all of New Mexico’s residents, and UNM’s students, staff, and faculty.

The University of New Mexico is comprised of a main campus occupying 800 acres near old Route 66 in the heart of Albuquerque, a Health Sciences Center, branch campuses in Gallup, Los Alamos, Taos, and Valencia, technology incubators, and multiple education centers throughout the state. UNM sits on the aboriginal homelands of the Pueblo Nations of Isleta and Sandia. The University is home to approximately 3,300 faculty and 6,600 staff, and provides an education to more than 33,000 students, over 83 percent of whom are New Mexico residents. Over 45 percent of the student population is Hispanic/Latinx, and approximately six percent are Native American students from the state’s Indigenous Nations. Approximately 43 percent of UNM students are the first in their family to attend college. UNM has a decades-long commitment to the state’s citizens, maintaining low tuition and providing significant scholarship and financial aid to 80 percent of undergraduate students and 70 percent of graduate students, including 37 percent of students who received Pell Grants in 2018. The University also has a large economic impact on the state, serving as one of the state’s largest employers and the largest producer of skilled labor, attracting over 300 million dollars annually in contract and grant research funding, and operating one of the state’s largest healthcare systems. The 2019 edition of the U.S. News & World Report ranks UNM in the top 100 of public institutions in the nation.

UNM is one of a handful of research-intensive and minority-serving flagship universities in the United States. As the nation becomes increasingly diverse, UNM represents the prototype of what research-intensive U.S. universities will look like in the future. In this way, the University is uniquely positioned to innovate in ways that will define and drive the future of public higher education in the country. The incoming VPEI will have the singular opportunity to assertively advance excellence-and-equity to reflect UNM’s status as the flagship research university in a diverse state.

Reporting directly to President Garnett S. Stokes, the VPEI will play a central role in deliberations with respect to Academic Affairs, the Health Sciences Center, and UNM administrative matters. The VPEI will provide strategic guidance, set goals, and collaborate with senior executive and academic leaders to articulate overall institutional directions and priorities. As head of the Division for Equity and Inclusion, the VPEI will be charged with delivering vision, strategic direction, coordination and implementation on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives throughout the University and within the community. The VPEI also will lead activities designed to increase the diversity of undergraduate and graduate students, staff, and faculty across all academic disciplines and units on all UNM campuses, as well as within the central and college-level administration.

To read the full position description and to submit inquiries, nominations/referrals, and applications, visit Isaacson, Miller’s website at www.imsearch.com/6853.