CSUN's Commitment to You:

CSUN is committed to achieving excellence through teaching, scholarship, learning, and inclusion. Our values include a respect for all people, building partnerships with the community, and the encouragement of innovation, experimentation, and creativity. CSUN strives to cultivate a community in which a diverse population can learn and work in an atmosphere of civility and respect. CSUN is especially interested in candidates who make contributions to equity and inclusion in the pursuit of excellence for all members of the University community.

The University:

One of the largest universities in the country, California State University, Northridge (CSUN) is an urban, comprehensive University that delivers award- winning undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 36,000 students annually and counts more than 400,000 alumni who fuel the region’s economy. Since its founding in 1958, CSUN has made a significant and long-term economic impact on California, generating nearly $1.9 billion in economic impact and nearly 12,000 jobs each year. CSUN is a designated Minority-Serving and Hispanic Serving Institution, ranking amongst the top twenty in the nation in graduating Latinx students. More than 70 percent of CSUN students are first-generation college students, and 60 percent come from historically underrepresented groups. Money magazine consistently ranks CSUN among the nation’s “most transformative” colleges for putting diverse students on the path to higher career earnings.

About the Position:

The inaugural Vice President for Equity & Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer (VPEI) reports to the President and serves as the University’s executive-level innovator and strategist responsible for guiding efforts and creating opportunities to embed and ensure the centrality of CSUN’s core values of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility and belonging (i.e. core equity values) across all aspects of the University. As an integrating partner and collaborator, the VPEI proactively leads, develops and implements plans, programs, and activities that advance and operationalize the University’s mission and values as well as the strategic directions, priorities and core equity values outlined in CSUN’s Road Ahead. As the first administrator to occupy this position, the VPEI will help further define the equity infrastructure needed to establish CSUN as a university that leads and lives up to its commitments to provide a campus culture where all students and employees from historically marginalized, underserved or underrepresented communities can thrive. The VPEI develops strong relationships with the Office of Equity & Compliance and makes referrals to address discrimination, harassment and civil rights violations.

The VPEI employs a data informed approach to enact or change practices and structures to guide the University in becoming a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive campus. The VPEI supports the highest quality learning environment in support of student success and equitable educational opportunities.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Leadership & Management

• Develops, leads and champions efforts that operationalizes CSUN’s vision and commitment to inclusive excellence and an equitable educational and working environment.
• Working collaboratively with University Cabinet, drives the integration of core equity values into planning and goal setting processes, including core equity values into our operational infrastructure to inform decision-making, academic and student programs, administrative operations, resource allocations, fundraising priorities, campus communications and other structures that impact campus culture and the experiences of students and employees.
• Provides innovative, visionary leadership for the development or revision of University policies, structures, practices and procedures that promote an inclusive culture and are in alignment with campus values to enable members of the community to achieve their full potential and function effectively in a diverse, inclusive environment.
• Leads efforts to establish and promote accountability for learning and action on justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility and belonging from a place of compassion, respect and care.
• Provides leadership and management of an expanding team of professionals in the Office of Equity & Inclusion in order to support and operationalize the University’s equity infrastructure in alignment with CSUN’s Road Ahead goals and core equity values while also empowering and catalyzing efforts of colleagues across campus engaged in justice, equity, diversity and inclusion work.
• Serves as the leader of the CSUN’s Commission on Diversity and Inclusion and oversees efforts to engage the Commission in an advisory capacity to the President to support and amplify the impact and effectiveness of a wide range of diversity and inclusion programs and activities relating to students, faculty, and staff.
• Advances CSUN’s inclusive excellence through engagement with alumni and other community partners; supports inclusive philanthropy and community engagement in order to cultivate external relationships and resources in support of initiatives that advance the University’s core equity values.

• Manages the Office of Equity & Inclusion, including budgeting and monitoring expenditures, and ensuring that human and financial resources are properly administered to maximize impact of programs and initiatives. Develops and effectively articulates funding needs and strategies to support the implementation and sustainability of initiatives.
• As a member of the University Cabinet, the VPEI will contribute to and drive a culture that fosters the professional and personal well-being of the community, exemplifying the attributes of the campus Leadership Principles.
• As a leader within the CSU, the VPEI collaborates with system-wide colleagues, including Chief Diversity Officers, to advance the mission and recognition of the transformative impact of the CSU across the state and nation. Works in alignment with and as a partner on the initiatives, goals and systemwide policies in accomplishing shared equity goals.

Thought Leadership & Data Stewardship

• Advises senior leadership about strategic equity and inclusion planning and implementation efforts that maximize institutional strengths and respond to identified needs in order to maintain an intentional and sustained focus on achieving inclusive excellence. Makes recommendations for systemic and organizational actions needed to achieve real and sustained progress toward a diverse and inclusive learning and work environment.
• Participates in educational and professional networks as an informed and committed advocate of the University.
• Serves as an ambassador for the University by publicly expressing the University’s core equity values and promoting University efforts and accomplishments in the areas of equity and inclusion.
• Leverages data to inform and help set clear measures of accountability and success indicators for advancing core equity values, institutional goals and priorities. Implements a robust system for collecting and analyzing data related to diversity and equity on campus. Reviews and develops indicators to inform the President and the senior leadership team on progress and trends in order to identify opportunities for growth.
• Regularly assesses the campus climate, surveys the CSUN community, and uses metrics to track progress toward equity goals.

Facilitation and Coaching

• Collaborates with students, faculty, staff and administrators across campus engaged in equitable and inclusive learning and working initiatives to provide thought partnership, build bridges and amplify their efforts and promote an inclusive culture.
• Creates structures that intentionally and regularly promote collaboration, trust, and communication between individuals, groups, committees, and coalitions advancing inclusive excellence and equity work, so they can easily share information and build effective, efficient, and synergistic efforts.
• Partners and collaborates with campus units (e.g. Office of Human Resources, Faculty Affairs and the Center for Teaching and Learning) to create strategies, tools and training to increase competencies and institutional knowledge about identity-based and intersectional diversity, including racial justice, disability justice, individuals without documentation, LGBTQIA+ communities, veteran communities, formerly incarcerated/justice-involved communities and people or groups from different religious/spiritual worldviews and traditions, recognizing that each population is not monolithic or mutually exclusive.
• Creates a communication strategy that provides visibility to CSUN’s cultural wealth, proactive equity innovations and progress in inclusive excellence. Develops tools that inform, educate, inspire and empower the campus community and external partners.
• Oversees an annual reporting of progress that ensures the transparent communication of challenges, efforts, impact and next steps.

Qualifications:

 Minimum Qualifications:

• A Master’s degree from a regionally accredited institution.
• A minimum of eight years full time work experience advancing equity and inclusion initiatives through best practice programs, education, and awareness, at least five years of which must be in a leadership capacity.
• At least three years of demonstrated and direct experience in building financial capacity to enact equity and inclusive excellence initiatives through the successful securement of federal, state or private grants and philanthropic investment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Doctorate degree from a regionally accredited institution.
• Experience in higher education and a university system setting.
• Demonstration of in-depth, contemporary knowledge on issues of: access, inclusion, diversity, equity, and multiculturalism in a large complex organizational setting, with a strong lens of intersectional understanding regarding race, gender, sexuality, disability, immigration status, veteran status, and other dimensions of personal and social identity.
• Demonstrated experience in implementing intersectional approaches in the advancement of equity and inclusive excellence in a learning and working environment.