EUGENE, Ore. – (March 2, 2012) – Yvette Marie Alex-Assensoh, a political scientist and attorney who has served on the Indiana University faculty for the past 18 years and as dean for women’s affairs since 2008, has been named vice president for equity and inclusion at the University of Oregon. She will begin work at the UO in August.
“We are excited that Yvette Alex-Assensoh is coming to Oregon,” said Robert Berdahl, the UO’s interim president. “This is a critical position, and Dr. Alex-Assensoh brings a wealth of leadership, scholarship, experience and commitment that will serve the university’s mission and contribute to important campus and statewide conversations about equity, inclusion and access.”
Alex-Assensoh will succeed Charles Martinez, who stepped down last summer as the UO’s vice president for institutional equity and diversity so that he could return to teaching and scholarship. Robin Holmes, the UO’s vice president for student affairs, has served since fall as interim director of the university’s Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to work with other senior leaders, faculty, students, staff and the community in advancing the academic mission of the UO by using best practices and innovations in equity and inclusion,” Alex-Assensoh said. “The University of Oregon is a top-tier research and teaching institution, and its goals of facilitating equity and inclusion, and serving students from a variety of backgrounds, mesh well with both my training and my passion.”
A position description for the UO’s vice president for equity and inclusion calls the university’s commitment to diversity issues “a growing source of institutional strength” and sets expectations for the new vice president to be “the catalyst for continuing efforts to build a diverse, inclusive and equitable university community in all dimensions.”
Alex-Assensoh will report to both the UO president and to the university’s senior vice president and provost. She will serve on the UO’s Executive Leadership Team and on the Leadership Council, providing guidance on campus-wide issues.
“Yvette is well-suited to shape and guide the vision of diversity on our campus,” said Lorraine Davis, the UO’s acting senior vice president and provost. “Her hiring culminates a thorough search, and the leadership she brings to the job will ensure continued emphasis on our diversity initiatives.”
The UO diversity plan – built around the core values of equality, opportunity and pluralism – was launched in 2006 after being reviewed by more than 1,000 people on campus and throughout the community. All UO schools and colleges have since developed specific diversity plans, and progress toward achieving the goals in those plans has varied.
Overall, the UO has seen increases in diversification of faculty, staff and students over the past six years. The university also has been recognized for its success in supporting students of color through to graduation.
“The University of Oregon has made clear its commitment to equity and inclusion as core institutional values that facilitate its academic mission,” Alex-Assensoh said. “I hope to build upon what has been accomplished in recent years, and work with others to help the UO become a model public institution in these areas.”
Alex-Assensoh has served in a variety of academic and leadership roles at Indiana University and in the American Political Science Association. She is a full professor in the political science department, and serves as an adjunct in both Asian American Studies and the Department of African American & African Diaspora Studies. She was director of graduate studies from 2002 to 2003, director of graduate studies and admissions from 2003 to 2007 and has been Indiana’s dean of women’s affairs since 2008. She taught and conducted research under a Fulbright scholarship at the University of Zagreb in Croatia during the 2000-01 academic year.
Her accomplishments at IU include developing or implementing a thematic residential program for women undergraduate students in science, math and technology; an award-winning savant peer education program; a campus-wide mentoring program; and an inter-campus coalition through which deans and directors at eight IU campuses plus Purdue University collaborate in advancing women’s issues.
In addition to the Fulbright scholarship, Alex-Assensoh’s academic honors include an Outstanding Research Award from the Association of Third World Studies, an American Council on Education fellowship and a McDonald’s Black History Maker of the Year award for Indiana. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Spencer Foundation and the National Academy of Education.
She received her bachelor’s degree (summa cum laude) from Dillard University in New Orleans in urban affairs and planning; her master’s degree and doctorate in political science, both from The Ohio State University; and her law degree (cum laude) from Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law.
Alex-Assensoh is the second Indiana University administrator to be hired by the UO in recent years. Roger Thompson was hired in 2010 to be the UO’s vice provost for enrollment management after serving in the same position for four years at IU.
Alex-Assensoh and her husband have two school-aged sons.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.
MEDIA CONTACT: Rita Radostitz, UO Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, 541-346-5741, rjr@uoregon.edu
Note: The University of Oregon is equipped with an on-campus television studio with satellite uplink capacity, and a radio studio with an ISDN phone line for broadcast-quality radio interviews.