WASHINGTON – As colleges and universities seek to increase diversity in top executive positions, chief diversity officers should not be overlooked for the presidency, according to diversity experts who have organized a professional development event this week to coach CDOs who aspire to become CEOs.
The inaugural Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Institute, which began Wednesday and ends Friday, was planned by CoopLew founders Dr. Ken Coopwood, Sr. and Dr. William T. Lewis, Sr. as one of the company’s evidence-based programs designed to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education by strengthening CDOs in their current roles and helping them prepare for higher positions in the academy.
“The CDO has the same type of footprint across the university landscape as the university president because CDOs work across multiple constituencies and peer groups,” said Lewis. “The role should be seen as an executive leader and a pathway to president. The next paradigm is engaging with search companies and boards of trustees to get them to recognize the talent pool in CDOs.”
This week’s gathering, which follows a CDO boot camp in Greensboro, N.C. in February and a skills-set symposium in Indianapolis in September, is supported by partners Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities, Academic Search, the TIAA Institute and Diverse.
Attendance has steadily grown, from a dozen CDOs and diversity professionals at the first event to 21 at the second and 30 at this week’s institute, said Lewis.
The lineup this week has included presentations and panel discussions by nationally recognized higher education leaders and other experts on topics such as analyzing the academic leadership pool, legal issues, dynamics of successful fund-raising and understanding the role of trustee boards.
Dr. Nancy “Rusty” Barcelo, former president of Northern New Mexico University, and Dr. Juan Sánchez Muñoz, president of the University of Houston, Downtown, were featured speakers along with keynoter Dr. Freeman Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
