AUSTIN, Texas—Dr. Gregory J. Vincent, vice provost for inclusion and cross-cultural effectiveness and professor at The University of Texas at Austin, has been promoted to a new position as the university’s vice president for diversity and community engagement, and has been named a faculty fellow in the university’s College of Education.
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Dr. Gregory J. Vincent
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Vincent will report to the university’s president, William Powers Jr., who created the new position that becomes effective June 1. Vincent’s responsibilities will be to work with a broad range of student, faculty, staff and community constituents to help make The University of Texas at Austin a more inviting and inclusive environment and to develop strategies to connect intellectual resources of the university to communities across Texas. Similar vice president positions have been created recently at other major public universities, such as the University of Minnesota and the University of Virginia.
“This is a great moment for the university,” said Powers. “Greg Vincent brings enormous talent and energy to the task of making UT even more diverse, more inclusive and more welcoming to students, staff and faculty of all cultures. I look forward to working with him in his new leadership role.”
Dr. Sheldon Ekland-Olson, the university’s provost to whom Vincent has reported since Aug. 1, when he was appointed vice provost for inclusion and cross-cultural effectiveness, said, “Greg brings great strength to this campus. With his broadened set of responsibilities comes the promise of even greater impact.”
During the past year, Vincent has hosted a series of “campus conversations” sessions to hear concerns from students and other members of the university community, and has met with a broad range of Austin and state public officials, opinion leaders, journalists and organizations to discuss diversity and inclusion issues.
“I’ve been impressed with the university’s commitment to diversity and community-university partnerships, and I look forward to working with President Powers and the campus community to build on successful current initiatives such as The University of Texas Elementary School and the Del Valle Nursing Clinic. I’m also deeply honored to have been named a faculty fellow.”
In his new position, Vincent will continue to participate in the Vice Presidents’ Council and the University Leadership Council. He also will continue to be on the faculty as a professor in the Department of Educational Administration in the College of Education.
“One of the greatest recognitions a faculty member can receive is appointment to an endowment,” said Dr. Manuel Justiz, dean of the College of Education. “In his relatively brief time at UT Austin, Dr. Greg Vincent has distinguished himself as an academic leader and contributor to the faculty and students of the Department of Educational Administration. His appointment as Fellow in the Sid W. Richardson Regents Chair in Community College Leadership is a tribute to his commitment to and leadership in these academic areas.”
Justiz said the appointment is both an honor and an opportunity. It will provide Vincent the opportunity to work even more closely with Dr. John Roueche, director of the highly ranked Community College Leadership Program in the Department of Educational Administration, in mentoring graduate students and serving on doctoral committees, conducting symposia and guest lectures, and participating in program development.
Vincent came to The University of Texas at Austin last summer after having been the vice provost for institutional equity and diversity and law professor at the University of Oregon since 2003. The new position of vice provost for inclusion and cross-cultural effectiveness at The University of Texas at Austin was created by former President Larry R. Faulkner in response to recommendations by the university’s Task Force on Racial Respect and Fairness.
Before joining the University of Oregon, Vincent was vice provost for academic affairs and campus diversity at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge from 2000-03, and had been the university’s vice provost for campus diversity from 1999-2000. Vincent also was a law professor and taught graduate courses in the university’s College of Education.
He also has been assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs and director of the Equity and Diverse Resource Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Vincent’s professional experience includes having been a vice president of Bank One Cleveland in Cleveland from 1994-95; director for regional and legal affairs at the Ohio Civil Rights Commission in Cleveland, 1991-94; assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Section of the Ohio Attorney General’s Office in Columbus, Ohio, 1988-91; and an associate with a law firm in Charleston, W. Va., 1987-88.
Vincent earned his doctorate, with emphasis in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania, his juris doctor degree from The Ohio State University College of Law and his bachelor of arts degree, with majors in history and economics, from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y.
For more information contact: Robert D. Meckel, Office of Public Affairs, 512-475-7847.
