Dear Members of the NJCU Community,

Following an extensive national search that included input from faculty, staff, students, and board members, we are pleased to introduce NJCU’s inaugural Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO), Dr. Angel Gonzalez. The Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer is a critical addition to the university’s senior leadership team and will provide transformative leadership to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion as part of NJCU’s core mission.

Dr. Gonzalez will join the NJCU community on June 14 from Stony Brook University in Long Island. At Stony Brook since August 2012, Dr. Gonzalez has served as program manager for the Center for Inclusive Education (CIE), the Graduate School, including an appointment as Interim Director of the CIE and Interim Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion.

In that role, Dr. Gonzalez led and oversaw the strategic planning and administration of four externally-funded programs to promote the retention and success of underrepresented and underserved graduate and undergraduate students. He utilized data-driven, evidence-based approaches to develop and implement programming and activities to foster the academic engagement and professional development of the students he served, and developed, and led implicit bias, inclusive teaching, and anti-racism workshops and trainings for faculty and staff.

Additionally, in his term as Interim Assistant Dean, he directed strategic initiatives that encouraged diversity, equity, and inclusion in the administrative oversight of seven externally-funded programs.

Dr. Gonzalez earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from California State University, Long Beach in 2004, a Master of Arts, Social/Health Psychology from Stony Brook in 2009 and a Doctor of Philosophy, Social/Health Psychology, also at Stony Brook, in 2012.

The hiring of a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer is a milestone in NJCU’s history and is an outcome of the continual efforts that have taken place at the University to develop plans for broader, measurable diversity goals for the institution. This new position will help ensure that these are well implemented.  Our institution has long recognized that our strength lies in our diversity and the addition of a Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer to our senior leadership team will further enhance our commitment to these critical issues.

I would like to thank the members of the Executive President’s Diversity Team and the President’s Diversity Council who helped facilitate the national search for the CDIO post and to all members of the university community who attended our Meet the Candidate sessions last month, asked thought-provoking and insightful questions, and provided feedback during our assessment surveys.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Angel Gonzalez on his selection as NJCU’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer as we welcome him to our institution next month.

Sincerely,

Sue Henderson, Ph.D.
President