Published August 8, 2022
Dear Colleagues:
We write to let you know that Despina Stratigakos has informed us that she will step down from her role of vice provost for inclusive excellence to return to her faculty role as professor of architecture, effective September 12, 2022. Professor Stratigakos will be a visiting professor at the University of Copenhagen during the fall semester.
A member of UB’s faculty since 2007, Professor Stratigakos was named vice provost for inclusive excellence in 2018. In this role, she has been responsible for leading UB’s efforts to create a culture of inclusive excellence across the university.
As vice provost, Professor Stratigakos has reimagined the Office of Inclusive Excellence as a hub for inclusive excellence-related activities across campus, partnering with other units and contributing programming to further the university’s mission. Professor Stratigakos’s leadership of faculty diversification initiatives, and particularly the innovative Visiting Future Faculty (VITAL) program, the SUNY PRODiG program and search committee recruitment training has advanced the university’s goal of diversifying our faculty. To foster critical conversations around racism and overcoming institutional barriers, Professor Stratigakos launched the “Let’s Talk about Race” series of university-wide lectures. During her tenure, the office also hosted Inclusive Excellence Summits, bringing together the campus community to promote understanding and showcase the innovative work being accomplished at UB to foster multiculturalism and diversity.
To ensure that UB is equitable in its policies, programs, activities and traditions, Professor Stratigakos co-led the President’s Advisory Council on Race and provided strategic facilitation for its implementation committee. The advisory council’s recommendations are key to enabling UB to achieve our goals of enhancing our social impact and addressing issues related to structural racism and inequity through our curriculum, research, recruitment, retention, and engagement practices.
Recognizing the need for an embedded diversity, equity and inclusion leadership infrastructure to realize UB’s ambitious inclusive excellence goals, Professor Stratigakos created a network of Unit Diversity Officers in 2019 that has fundamentally transformed inclusive excellence work at UB. This network has proven critical to responding to national and local issues and implementing programs and change at UB.
In the coming weeks, we will announce interim leadership for the Office of Inclusive Excellence. We expect to commence a national search later this year.
Colleagues, please join us in thanking Professor Stratigakos for her outstanding contributions to the university community and in wishing her much continued success as she returns to the faculty in the School of Architecture and Planning.
Sincerely,
Satish K. Tripathi
President
A. Scott Weber
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
