Mark Brimhall-Vargas, Ph.D.

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Mark Brimhall-Vargas, Ph.D. 

Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — Brandeis University

Mark Brimhall-Vargas, Ph.D. is the Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Brandeis University. He brings over two decades of expertise in campus-wide diversity and equity management and programming, cultural competency, and conflict resolution. As the CDO/VP, Mark is responsible for aligning diversity policy and programming for faculty, staff, and students across the university in areas of 1) recruitment, retention, and success strategies; 2) cultural competence training and preparation; 3) assessment, metrics, and creating a diversity dashboard; and 4) messaging, communications, and passive education around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. His portfolio currently supervises the Intercultural Center, Gender and Sexuality Center, and the Ombuds functions.

This year, he will be focusing on addressing the concerns raised during the Ford Hall demonstrations; expanding options for training and development, and creating metrics to assess university progress in terms of its efforts around compositional diversity.

Prior to coming to Brandeis University, Mark was the Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Provost at Tufts University, and before that, the Deputy Chief Diversity Officer at the University of Maryland.

Mark earned his Ph.D. in Social Foundations of Education from the University of Maryland. His academic expertise includes critically conscious pedagogy, social justice, and identity development (particularly religious, spiritual, faith-based identity). He also holds a Masters’ degree in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College. He originally hails from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Mark Brimhall-Vargas, PhD. will be a panelist for the Role of Empathy Panel Discussion at the inaugural Health & Life Sciences Conference taking place Thursday, March 22, from 12-6 PM. Sponsored by Color Magazine, The IXL Center, and Biogen