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Developing the “Yay”sayers: Influence as Strategy
Mark Brimhall-Vargas
Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Provost
Tufts University
Mark Brimhall-Vargas, PhD is the Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Provost (CDO/AP) at Tufts University. He brings two decades of expertise in campus-wide diversity and equity management and programming, cultural competency, and conflict resolution. As the CDO/AP, Mark is responsible for aligning diversity policy and programming for faculty, staff, and students across the four major campuses that comprise Tufts in areas of 1) recruitment, retention, and success strategies; 2) cultural competence training and preparation; 3) assessment, metrics, and maintaining the diversity dashboard; and 4) messaging, communications, and passive education. He has also recently added the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) and the University Committee on Teaching and Faculty Development (UCTFD) in his portfolio.
This year, he will be focusing on creating a campus-wide climate assessment focused on the experience of graduate students as well as aligning the schools in an effort to standardize search and selection processes for faculty hires.
Prior to coming to Tufts University, Mark worked at the University of Maryland in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion as its Deputy Chief Diversity Officer. In this role, he was responsible for managing diversity grants, undertaking campus-wide initiatives such as the overhaul of the search and selection process, and overseeing the campus’ award-winning intergroup dialogue program.
Mark has a PhD in Social Foundations of Education at 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.
