Interim vice provost of diversity & equity is 3rd candidate for KU position

LAWRENCE — Jennifer Ng, interim vice provost for diversity & equity and a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, will take part in interviews as a candidate for vice provost for diversity & equity at the University of Kansas.

Ng, whose interview schedule with campus constituents takes place Thursday, April 30, and Friday, May 1, is the last of three finalists for the position.

A recorded video presentation from the candidate’s interview process will be made available for campus community members to view shortly after the final candidate has completed the interview presentations. Ng’s CV is available for review, and faculty, staff and students are encouraged to submit their impressions and feedback through the online evaluation form on the search webpage by May 15.

The vice provost for diversity & equity facilitates the coordination of campuswide diversity initiatives, strategic planning, training, education, research, community relations, policy development, compliance, campus climate issues and communications. Moreover, the vice provost works across all academic and operational units to strengthen a campuswide culture of inclusive excellence and to connect these units with the resources, training and strategies they need to achieve their specific diversity, equity and inclusion goals. Offices reporting to the vice provost include the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity, the Center for Sexuality & Gender Diversity and the Multicultural Scholars Program.

Ng began her faculty career at KU in 2004 and is a professor of educational leadership and policy studies. She has served as the interim vice provost since May 2019. Prior to that, she worked with faculty and students across campus as the office’s director of academic inclusion.

Ng’s research and teaching interests focus on how the social contexts of schooling affect educators’ work, especially with race, class, culture and other forms of difference as primary features. Her service and leadership complement her scholarly interests. In 2014, she co-founded KU’s Asian and Asian-American Faculty and Staff Council and served as its first president. In 2015, she was appointed to a special Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Group convened by the provost. She served as a faculty fellow in the Office of Faculty Development from 2016-2018, and she is a member of the Kansas Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

She is a distinguished teacher and received the School of Education’s Faculty Achievement Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2009, the Gene A. Budig Teaching Professorship in 2011 and the Dr. Bob Frederick Educator Award in 2016. She was awarded a Keeler Intra-University Professorship in 2010 and selected to be part of the Leadership Kansas Class of 2015. Her other honors include the Steeples Service to Kansans Award in 2017 and the School of Education Faculty Achievement Award for Service in 2018.

Ng completed both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Iowa. She earned her doctorate in educational policy studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Before working in higher education, she was also a middle school English teacher in Houston.

The vice provost search committee – led by co-chairs Sarah Deerk, professor of women, gender & sexuality studies, and D.A. Graham, university ombuds, will involve a wide variety of campus groups in the interview process to ensure broad campus input. For more information about the position, its responsibilities and the search committee, please visit the position overview page.