Three Women Who Have Been Appointed Diversity Administrators in Higher Education

Jazmine Rodriguez is the new director of equity and engagement in the Division of Student Life at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She comes to Rhodes from Northwestern University, where she was a recruitment and operations specialist and assistant director of campus life. Earlier, she worked at Rollins College in Orlando, Florida, as director of fraternity and sorority life and assistant director of residential life.

A native of Miami, Rodriguez holds a bachelor’s degree in interpersonal/organizational communications and a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Central Florida.

Kristie A. Ford has been named the inaugural associate provost for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. She is the Quadracci Chair in Social Responsibility and professor of sociology, and director of the Center for Leadership, Teaching, and Learning at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. She will begin her new job on January 1.

Dr. Ford received a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Amherst College in Massachusetts. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Shavonne Shorter has been named associate provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. She will assume the role in January. Dr. Shorter has been serving as special assistant to the president for diversity, equity, and inclusion and is a tenured faculty member in the department of communication studies at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania.

A native of Maryland, Dr. Shorter holds a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Frostburg State University in Maryland and master’s and doctoral degrees in communication from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.