OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Director, Community Diversity Relations
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Assistant Director, OSU Extension Service / Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Senior Associate Director, Recruitment and Marketing / Admissions and Enrollment
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Assistant Director, Outreach
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Assistant Professor / College of Liberal Arts
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Education
Carina Buzo Tipton currently serves as the Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Education. In this role, Carina sustains educational partnerships with Faculty Affairs, Academic Affairs, the Center for Teaching and Learning, University Human Resources, the Division of Student Affairs, the Division of Extension and Engagement and other university entities. Carina also supports the Dialogue Facilitation Lab professional learning experience for faculty, staff, and graduate employees, as well as leading Change for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, our diversity leadership program.
Carina is a PhD candidate in WGSS with a concentration in Feminist Institutional Change. Her research critically engages the structures of higher education and carceral systems as possible sites for socially just change. She analyzes the ways that institutions on a systematic level are experienced by people on an individual level. As a scholar in feminist studies, Carina believes in the power and necessity of grounding DEI work in her own subjectivity. As a queer woman of color, sexual assault and domestic violence survivor, Carina's own identities are intertwined in her DEI education work, which provides her an attentiveness and care to systems of oppression and liberation. These identities allow Carina to incorporate a lived experience expertise in DEI education methods. Carina sees education as a key to addressing interlocking systems of oppression. Her dissertation, "Curandera Feminism: Tracing the Possibilities of Healing Institutional Harm", weaves together familial knowledge, traditional healing practices, and trauma informed feminist pedagogies to integrate the impacts of institutional harm while creating pathways towards futures of accountability and healing. Her published reaches across many topics including: sexual assault education and consent work, carceral institutional critique, trauma informed pedagogies, Chicanx/Latine gender and sexuality, and student development.
Carina has a passion for DEI work that is rooted in her family's experience with racial injustice throughout the 1940s-1960s during repatriation and desegregation. She was born and raised in Stockton, California with her large family - her father, Carlos, is one of twelve children, her mother, Maggie, is one of ten children, and Carina is one of five children. She currently lives in Corvallis, Oregon with her spouse, James, sibling, Julie, and her tuxedo cat, Lincoln.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Assistant Vice Provost / Research
Dawn Marie Alapisco joined the Office of Institutional Diversity as the NAGPRA Coordinator in July 2018. A former geriatric nurse, Dawn Marie returned to school for an advanced nursing degree only to fall in love with anthropology. She fell even deeper by working with the 2009 OSU Archeological Field School at the Newell Homestead in Champoeg, Oregon and the Bake House at Fort Yamhill, Oregon.
Her concerns surrounding quality of life and end of life issues led her into the field of human osteology and bioarchaeology. She received her HBS in Physical Anthropology/Archaeology from Oregon State University's Honors College in 2012. Going straight into her Master's program at OSU, she completed her Master of Arts in Applied Anthropology with the curation of the Umm el-Jimal Osteological Research Collection from Umm el-Jimal, Jordan. This collection, representing a population in transition from nomadic pastoralism to semi-settled agriculture, also represents a population caught in the middle of a series of rapidly changing sociopolitical settings. Dawn Marie's primary research interests with the Umm el-Jimal Osteological Research Collection have focused on maternal and infant nutritional health during both the political and subsistence strategy transitions and how changes in nutrition influence bone development and maintenance through the lifespan. A secondary area of interest involves the gendered division of labor and increase in social stratification within this population.
Dawn Marie's experience with the people of Umm el-Jimal and passion for justice, especially for those who can no longer speak for themselves, naturally informs her work with NAGPRA and her responsibility to the ethical care of those Native ancestors temporarily in the care of Oregon State University. She has previously worked with the Office of Research Integrity and the Anthropology program here at OSU.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Associate Professor / College of Public Health and Human Sciences / Co - Principal Investigator
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Senior Employee and Labor Relations Officer / Human Resources
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Senior Faculty Research Assistant / College of Forestry
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- International Student Case Manager
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Interim Co - Director, Chief of Staff / Diversity & Cultural
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Associate Director, Community Dialogue & Engagement / Diversity & Cultural
- Director of Institutional Education
- Director, Institutional Education for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Jeff Kenney currently serves as the Director of Institutional Education for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Oregon State University. Jeff first joined OSU in May 2012 and has previously served as the Coordinator for LGBTQ+ Outreach & Services, Associate Director for Research and Assessment and Associate Director for Community Dialogue & Engagement in the department of Diversity & Cultural Engagement.
The focus of Jeff's career has been the design, implementation and evaluation of curricular and co-curricular strategies for diversity and social justice learning in higher education. Jeff has undertaken numerous service and consultation projects in diverse educational settings including K-12 schools, non-profits, healthcare and correctional institutions.
Jeff has taught at the college level for 10 years, and currently serves as an instructor for the Graduate Certificate in College and University Teaching and is affiliate faculty within the School of Language, Culture and Society. His areas of research interest include: critical approaches to adult education, faculty development, educational research ethics, and equity frameworks in organizational leadership. Jeff completed his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership at Clemson University where he was a Graduate Alumni Fellow. His dissertation research focused on the development of STEM faculty at public colleges and universities who integrate social justice education with their curriculum and instruction. Jeff also earned his M.Ed. in Counselor Education from Clemson University, is a National Certified Counselor, and serves as a part-time staff counselor for Oregon State University's Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS). Jeff earned his B.F.A. from the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where he majored in Comprehensive Studio Art with an emphasis in sculpture.
Job Titles:
- Staff Writer at the New Yorker
Jelani Cobb is a staff writer at The New Yorker, writing on race, history, justice, politics, and democracy, as well as Columbia University's Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism and next Dean of Columbia Journalism School. He recently co-edited The Matter of Black Lives, a collection of The New Yorker's most ground-breaking writing on Black history and culture in America, featuring the work of legendary writers like James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. Publishers Weekly writes, "Beyond the stellar prose, what unites these pieces, which range widely in length, tone, and point of view, is James Baldwin's insight, paraphrased by Jelani Cobb, that ‘the American future is precisely as bright or as dark as our capacity to grapple with [the legacy of racism].'" Cobb also edited and wrote a new introduction for The Kerner Commission-a historic study of American racism and police violence originally published in 1967-helping to contextualize it for a new generation. The condensed version of the report, called The Essential Kerner Commision Report, is described as an "essential resource for understanding what Cobb calls the ‘chronic national predicament' of racial unrest" (Publishers Weekly).
During a historic election in the midst of a global pandemic, Cobb investigated allegations of voter fraud and disenfranchisement as a PBS Frontline correspondent in the documentary Whose Vote Counts, revealing how these unfounded claims entered the political mainstream. He clearly presents how racial inequities, COVID-19, and voter suppression became interlinked crises, contributing to a long legacy of inequality. For tackling one of the key issues at the heart of modern U.S. politics and carefully elucidating what the fight for voting rights looks like in the 21st century, Whose Vote Counts received a Peabody Award. Cobb was also the correspondent for the Frontline documentary Policing the Police, where he examined whether police reform is a viable solution in the wake of mounting protests calling for racial justice, and explored how we can hold police departments accountable. Previously, Cobb was prominently featured in Ava Duvernay's 13th, her Oscar-nominated documentary about the current mass incarceration of Black Americans, which traces the subject to its historical origins in the Thirteenth Amendment.
Cobb is the recipient of the Hillman Prize for opinion and analysis journalism, as well as the Walter Bernstein Award from the Writer's Guild of America for his investigative work on Policing the Police. He is the author of Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress, and To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic. He was appointed the Dean of Columbia Journalism School in 2022.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Assistant Dean / Division of Undergraduate Studies
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Associate Professor / College of Public Health and Human Sciences
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Associate Professor / College of Education
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Executive Director and Title IX Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director, Outreach
Miguel joined the Office of Institutional Diversity in the Fall 2021 as the Assistant Director of Outreach. In this role, Miguel is responsible for co-designing educational programming for faculty and staff, supporting bias response efforts and leading signature university-wide OID outreach initiatives and events.
Having completed his undergraduate and master's degrees at OSU, and having held multiple roles across various departments, he brings a strong connection to OSU. Miguel's career interest and passions focus on broadening access and the supports needed for minoritized college students to learn and flourish in college. His interest also include social class supports for low-income and first generation college students, critical frameworks to teaching and learning, and social justice curriculum development.
Most recently, Miguel served as the Basic Needs Navigator for the Human Services Resource Center, where he was the primary contact for students facing financial crisis and basic needs insecurity. His success prompted support from the Oregon Legislature to fund benefit navigators at all state colleges and universities in Oregon. Prior to that, Miguel worked at Portland Community College as the Multicultural Center Coordinator where he provided strategic leadership in developing and implementing campus-wide equity and inclusion goals.
Miguel is a proud first-generation immigrant and college graduate. He grew up in Woodburn, Oregon, where he spent most summers working agricultural jobs. Now, much of his free time and summers revolve around his two young daughters, Luna and Nova, which includes coaching soccer, the local Valley Rock Gym, and being outdoors when possible. He currently serves as board president for DevNW, an affordable housing and community development non-profit organization.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Graduate Student / College of Science
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Executive Assistant to the Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer
- Executive Assistant to VPCDO
Pamela Johnson joined the Office of Institutional Diversity in April 2016. Before coming to Oregon State University, she worked in bookstores for 15 years in a variety of positions, starting as a bookseller at Borders Books and Music in Naperville, Illinois, and being promoted to assistant manager at Borders Stores in Salem and Corvallis. Most recently she was the Events & Marketing Coordinator at Grass Roots Books & Music in Corvallis.
Pamela earned her B.A. in Journalism at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. She has a lifelong love of stories and books, and is working to complete her own novel. With a strong belief that everybody has a story, and that by sharing our stories we can learn from each other and connect, she is excited to be working at Oregon State with so many different people.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Assistant Director, Asian & Pacific Cultural Center / Co - Director, Diversity & Cultural Engagement
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Academic Advisor / College of Liberal Arts
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Professor
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Director, Strategic Initiatives
- Vice President, Chief Diversity Officer
Scott Vignos joined Oregon State University in October 2015, serving as Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer since November 2022, following fourteen months of service in the interim position. In this role, Scott collaborates with partners across the university to design and lead the Office of Institutional Diversity's portfolio of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Scott is responsible for guiding implementation of the university's diversity strategic plan - Innovate & Integrate: Plan for Inclusive Excellence - and consulting with university leaders to create a more just and equitable Oregon State. He serves on the President's Cabinet, and a variety of university-level committees and task forces.
An attorney by training, Scott has an enduring passion for pursuing justice through action. Prior to his career in higher education, he practiced law in San Francisco at an international law firm and maintained a pro bono practice with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area representing clients seeking asylum in the United States.
Scott is the son of an Indian immigrant and his husband is an associate professor at OSU. His approach to advancing equitable organizational transformation is informed by his intersecting identities as a multi-racial, gay man.
Scott earned his J.D. from UC Davis School of Law and his B.A. from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Director / Department of Public Safety
Job Titles:
- Assistant Vice President for Strategic Diversity Initiatives
Teresita Alvarez-Cortez serves as the Assistant Vice President for Strategic Diversity Initiatives. In this role, Teresita consults units across campus in strategic planning, leads the bias response team, supports the facilitation of diversity data, and offers coaching and leadership to a variety of equity initiatives. Teresita joins the OID team from her permanent role as the Director for Diversity Initiatives and Programs in University Housing & Dining Services where she has led equity work and served on the department leadership team since 2011.
With over 16 years of experience working in diversity and equity roles, Teresita is passionate about creating inclusive campus spaces for all students to thrive. She works to create strategic partnerships to advance equity, belonging and success for minoritized students, staff, and faculty. Teresita has previously worked in student life, multicultural affairs, and high school outreach programs, within community college and university settings. Her research interests include multicultural issues in higher education practice and social justice education for students, staff, and faculty. Teresita's most recent publication "Centering Minoritized Students in Times of Crisis" was featured in the September-October 2020 issue of the ACPA journal About Campus, which focused on higher education in the era of COVID-19.
Teresita earned her Master of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from Iowa State University and her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Chicano Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Teresita is originally from Carson, California, and is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants. She now makes her home in Corvallis, OR with her husband Marcos and daughter Mayeli.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Strategic Plan Committee
- Professor and Department Head / College of Forestry