Office of Faculty and Staff Diversity

Vision

The vision of the Office of Faculty and Staff Diversity is for all San Diego State University students, staff, faculty and alumni to participate in a welcoming, affirming and just campus community where diversity, inclusion, equity and social justice are valued and advanced through institutional programs and policies. 

Mission

The mission of the Office of Faculty and Staff Diversity is to elevate, celebrate and support the diverse San Diego State University community, and to foster a culture of inclusive excellence in teaching, learning, scholarship and service through professional learning communities, advocacy, policy recommendations and organizational structures.

Who We Are

As a sub-division of Student Affairs and Campus Diversity, and led by the Associate Vice President for Faculty and Staff Diversity, the OFSD team includes the staff of the Center for Inclusive Excellence, the Campus Director of Inclusive Recruitment, the Equity Analyst, faculty fellows, and the diversity liaisons who comprise the Equity and Inclusion Councils. 

What We Do

In collaboration with multiple units across campus, OFSD serves all students, staff and faculty of SDSU as well as alumni and community members when possible and appropriate. We aim to build the capacity of all to advance just institutional systems and an affirming campus culture based on the core values of excellence, equity, diversity, belonging and inclusion through:

• Evidence-based professional learning and development around issues of identity, bias and privilege; inclusive communication; equity-minded teaching and support services; and inclusive recruitment and evaluation;
• Recruitment, hiring and retention of faculty and staff who are reflective of the diverse students and communities served by SDSU;
• Promoting the use of data to deepen understanding and inform policies and practices to advance equity and social justice in all aspects of campus life;
• Development and support of infrastructure, policies and communication channels to ensure the holistic  integration of equity and inclusion in everything we do, across and within all campus units.

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Meet the Team

Dr. Jennifer Imazeki is a Senate Distinguished Professor and Professor of Economics. As AVP for Faculty and Staff Diversity, Dr. Imazeki serves as Director of the Center for Inclusive Excellence, the campus hub for professional learning and capacity-building around justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. She also leads the Equity and Inclusion Councils, comprised of diversity liaisons from all campus units, and oversees unit-level diversity planning and campus initiatives to promote inclusive recruitment of faculty and staff. Dr. Imazeki’s research focuses on the economics of K-12 education, including work on school finance reform, adequacy and teacher labor markets. In addition to academic publications, her work on education policy has included analysis for multiple court cases related to educational equity and adequacy and, most recently, contributing to the Getting Down to Facts II project, an in-depth look at California’s PreK-12 education landscape. Since joining the SDSU faculty in 2000, Dr. Imazeki has taught a range of economics courses, from a 500-seat section of Principles of Microeconomics to a writing-intensive course for economics majors. In her previous role as Director of SDSU’s Center for Teaching and Learning, Dr. Imazeki initiated multiple programs to promote inclusive teaching practices and to engage faculty in scholarly evaluation of their teaching. She is Past-President of the Faculty Development Council, representing faculty developers in the California State University system, and has served as a University Senator for the College of Arts and Letters, and a member and chair of the Senate Faculty Affairs Committee. Dr. Imazeki received her bachelor’s degree at Pomona College in Claremont, CA; and her master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, all in Economics.

 

Dr. Broussard is the Equity Analyst for SDSU’s Center for Inclusive Excellence. Her work involves collaborating with multiple groups on campus and within the system to quantify and examine data on diversity and representation, as well as program evaluation data for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and initiatives. She earned her Ph.D. in Experimental Social Psychology from Saint Louis University in 2020 and worked on an NSF ADVANCE grant at Villanova University from 2020-2023, examining various aspects of underrepresentation in STEM and academia, as well as examining and developing tools to measure motivation for participation in DEI development. She specializes in research on social identities, understanding prejudice, bias, stigma, and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Lacie Barber is an Associate Professor of Psychology with expertise in industrial-organizational psychology. Her research examines how organizations can create a psychologically healthy workplace for their workers despite “always on” expectations with technology. Her research on workplace telepressure has received grant funding from the Society of Human Resource Management Foundation and she has >65 peer-reviewed journal publications on organizational psychology topics related to worker stress and well-being. She received an Early Career Achievement Award for exceptional early career contributions to the science of occupational health psychology. She is currently on the Editorial Board at the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Journal of Business and Psychology, Occupational Health Science, and Stress and Health. Since joining SDSU in 2018, she has taught undergraduate and graduate courses related to inclusive workplace practices for both hiring (personnel psychology) and worker motivation/well-being (organizational psychology). She also serves as an Associate Advisor for the MS Program in Applied Psychology program and mentors graduate students on quantitative research projects related to organizational psychology. Dr. Barber received her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and both her master’s and doctorate degrees at Saint Louis University in industrial-organizational psychology with a minor in research methodology.

Jessica Chang (she/hers) is the Diversity Officer for Student Engagement, Learning & Development at San Diego State University. She develops foundational justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion curriculum with students, for students -- to contribute toward fostering an inclusive campus climate and to offer opportunities of social consciousness raising. Her passion is integrating student development theory into the college experience, advocating for counter narratives, and centering them through an organization’s strategic initiatives. Jessica received her Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of San Diego. She has previous experience in the private sector and worked at Coca-Cola Refreshments in marketing and leadership development before pursuing her Master’s of Education, Student Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Higher Education and Organizational Change Department. Prior to her current role, Jessica was honored to have served as the Director of the Center for Intercultural Relations, SDSU’s multicultural center on campus. Jessica is a daughter of Southeast Asian refugees and is a proud bonus mom of two teenagers with her partner.

Rachel earned a BA in Public Administration from SDSU in 2014 and joined the campus as a staff member in December of 2017. She is a current Graduate student in the Postsecondary Educational Leadership with an Emphasis in Student Affairs program through the College of Education. She supports all administrative and preliminary resource management tasks for the team. She also currently serves as the Unit 7 Representative in the CSUEU union for the SDSU chapter (318) since February of 2021. The CSUEU put out a Black Lives Matter initiative in 2021 which created several Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committees. Rachel is a member of the Standing, Chican@/Latin@, and Women’s committees, and is a co-chair for the Allies committee.

​​Lott Hill (he/him or they) is the Faculty Learning and Development Specialist in the Center for Inclusive Excellence. He supports faculty members through the development of inclusive instructional approaches, diversification of curricular and course content, and the design and implementation of equitable systems, structures, policies, and practices. Informed by the principles of restorative justice, community engagement, and embodied learner-centered practice, Lott has 25 years of teaching experience and 15 years leading institutional change while supporting the pedagogical and professional development of faculty. Prior to joining SDSU, Lott directed centers for teaching and learning at the University of the Pacific and Columbia College Chicago, where he received his MFA in creative writing. Through the myriad  initiatives that Lott has led and supported, he is particularly proud to have advanced equity and inclusivity for transgender and non-binary students and faculty, designed and implemented fellowship and mentoring opportunities that supported underrepresented and minoritized faculty, facilitated departmental and disciplinary curricular diversification, and increased faculty and student use of affordable learning solutions and open educational resources.

Conor McLaughlin (he/they series pronouns) serves as the Staff Learning and Development Specialist in the Center for Inclusive Excellence. Before (re)joining San Diego State University, Conor was a Teaching Professor at Bowling Green State University in the Department of Higher Education and Student Affairs. Conor has previously worked at University of San Diego in the Center for Inclusion and Diversity, UC San Diego in the Division of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and in residence life at San Diego State University, Cornell University, and Columbia University. Conor holds a Ph. D. in Leadership Studies the University of San Diego, where their dissertation explored the use of bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress as a conduit for shifting approaches to leadership and professional practice in student affairs professionals who are white, heterosexual, men. Conor has published research on approaches to social justice and leadership, practicing adaptive leadership, supporting LGBTQ students of color on college campuses, and the ways student affairs professionals navigate experiencing unemployment. Conor also holds an MA in Organizational Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University and a BA in Philosophy from Cabrini College (now Cabrini University). Conor enjoys coffee, photography, music, and cooking as pathways to building community. 

Jennifer is a program Director and team member in the Center for Inclusive Excellence. As Campus Director of Inclusive Recruitment, Jennifer executes the CIE’s diversity initiatives for staff and faculty recruitment.  Jennifer is also the Regional Director of SoCal HERC, a consortium of higher education institutions collaborating on recruitment, retention and diversity for higher education employers in the Southern California region.  Prior to joining San Diego State University, Jennifer worked in the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at UC San Diego and with other higher education institutions for 16 years in academic affairs, academic recruitment and diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition to higher education, Jennifer has 22 years of experience in Human Resources management with non-profit, technology and fortune 500 organizations.  Jennifer is an SDSU alumni and holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science with a minor in Biology from SDSU.  Go Aztecs!

Dr. Saia is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Rehabilitation Technology Certificate within the Department of Administration, Rehabilitation, and Postsecondary Education. She is a proud disabled woman with a deep commitment to social justice, accessibility, and equity for all. Dr. Saia teaches a range of courses in both the on campus and distance Rehabilitation Counseling Program. Her professional work history has involved advocating for a progressive understanding of disability within the applied fields. A shift from diagnosis to disability as a culture and identity. One worth choosing and celebrating. In 2019, Dr. Saia graduated from the University of Arizona with her Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision. Her dissertation focused on the role of disability cultural centers in higher education — one of the first empirical studies on this topic. Dr. Saia is one of the originators of the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association (ARCA) Disability-Related Counseling Competencies informing the work of 55,000 counselors nationally. Her vision is of a just world … where disabled people have equal opportunity to participate fully in all aspects of life… where communities are barrier free , and access is universal… where discrimination is unthinkable.

Dr. Norah P. Shultz is a Professor of Sociology at San Diego State University.  She also serves as the Director of Inclusive Curriculum for the Division of Student Affairs & Campus Diversity. Her initial research centered on the intersection of volunteerism and aging and was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.  For over two decades her interests have focused on several issues related to higher education, including, the relationship of multiculturalism and internationalization in global curricula, general education, leading change in higher education, diversity, equity and inclusion and student success. Her edited volume, Challenges of Multicultural Education: Teaching & Taking Diversity Courses (with Jeffrey Shultz), explores the relationship between faculty and student identities in the classroom.   She has an edited volume in process with the working title of Revising the Curriculum and Co-Curriculum to Engage Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (expected spring 2023).  Previously Dr. Shultz has served as a senior academic administrator at several universities, where she has implemented curricular change related to diversity and inclusion and served on diversity focused strategic planning efforts, among other accomplishments in regard to student success initiatives. Dr. Shultz completed her graduate studies (M.A., Ph.D.) at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.