Dear Members of the Brown Community,

Following the recent announcement that Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity Sylvia Carey-Butler will depart her role in October, I am writing to share information regarding the search process for her successor. 

It’s important to note that this is a critical moment for Brown to make clear our strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. As we enter the ninth year since the launch of the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP) — Brown’s plan to address barriers to inclusion and create a stronger academic community — and the national landscape continues to shift, we have an opportunity to demonstrate by our values and our actions that we remain steadfast in making progress toward our goals.

Since the DIAP’s launch in February 2016, the plan has served the University well. Brown has made significant investments in our infrastructure for advancing diversity and inclusion — both people and programs — which has made it possible to achieve significant progress on the goals of the DIAP. Supported by the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, departments across Brown have played an active role in contributing to diversity and inclusion in pursuit of academic excellence. 

However, the DIAP was conceived as a 10-year plan, designed to accomplish a set of concrete actions that largely have been achieved. We are at a point where Brown, as a community, needs to develop a new plan for the future that will, ideally, be put in place by February 2026. And we will do so amid changes in federal laws and national court cases that have affected Brown and other higher education institutions. For much of the country, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are under attack, making it all the more important that Brown demonstrates and realizes our continued strong commitment to building a diverse and inclusive campus. 

The next leader in the role of Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity will be charged with working collaboratively with stakeholders from across the University — faculty, staff and students — to develop and implement a vision and strategy for the next decade. After discussions with numerous Brown stakeholders, I believe that the University will be best served at this moment by a leader who comes from within Brown’s community and brings the intellectual leadership, scholarly experience and capacity to build on existing connections to members of the Brown community that will allow us to move forward expeditiously and thoughtfully in this important work.  

To that end, in the coming weeks I will formally launch an internal search to identify a senior Brown faculty member to serve in this full-time leadership role. This new Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity will steward efforts across Brown’s academic and administrative operations, continuing to align our diversity and inclusion efforts with our core mission. This individual will work closely with the expanded network of diversity and inclusion staff across academic and administrative units that has continued to develop since the launch of the DIAP. I will chair a search committee composed of faculty, staff and students. The members of this search committee will be shared in the coming weeks. 

As before, the new Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity will report directly to me, serve as a member of the President’s Cabinet, and work closely with the Corporation of Brown University on matters related to diversity and inclusion.

At Brown, our work on diversity and inclusion is grounded in and central to our academic mission of advancing knowledge and discovery through free inquiry. I look forward to working with members of our community on this search and, even more, on developing and implementing Brown’s vision for the future.

Sincerely,

Christina H. Paxson
President