Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that after a national search, Dr. Amanda Taylor has been selected to serve as Assistant Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, effective July 2, 2018. Dr. Taylor will be responsible for collaborating with campus stakeholders in coordinating, implementing, and assessing AU’s Plan for Inclusive Excellence. She will report to me.

Amanda brings to the role an impressive record of research and practice. Her research and teaching focus on the intersection of culture, power, and education in domestic and international contexts. She earned her doctorate of education and her master's in education at Harvard University, where her dissertation focused on antiracist educational policy implementation. She also earned her master's in teaching and bachelors in English literature with honors at the University of Virginia. Her research on antiracist education and transnational and multicultural community organizing for educational justice has been published in top peer-reviewed journals and presses including the Harvard Educational Review, Oxford University Press, and the Peabody Journal of Education.

Amanda has been passionate about the role of education in advancing equity and social justice since her undergraduate days. Following her time teaching in K-12 urban public, rural, and international schools, Amanda began her higher education career as the Director of Graduate Enrollment Management in the School of International Service at AU. In this role, she worked to develop strategic partnerships and pipelines to support historically underrepresented students successfully access graduate education.

For the past five years, she has been a faculty member in the School of International Service, and has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in cross-cultural communication, international education, and culturally responsive program design in traditional face-face, online, and experiential immersion contexts. She has received numerous awards for her teaching and mentorship, including the 2017 AU award for outstanding teaching in a term appointment and the 2018 SIS F. Gunther Eyck Award.

Since 2014, Amanda has served as SIS Program Director of the MA in Intercultural and International Communication, as well as the Co-Director of the joint SIS and SOC MA in Global Media program. She is also the education team lead for AU's new Antiracist Research and Policy Center led by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.

Most recently, Amanda was a Faculty Fellow for AU’s Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning where she developed and co-led several semester-long learning communities for faculty across campus focused on building culturally sustaining classrooms.

Please join me in congratulating and supporting Amanda as she takes on her new role. Her office will be located in the VP of Campus Life and Inclusive Excellence suite, 4th floor Butler.

Thanks,
Fanta Fanta Aw, PhD
Vice President of Campus Life & Inclusive Excellence