Vice President of Equity and Inclusion - Framingham State University

Location: Framingham, MA Category: Staff Job Type: Full-time Posted On: Tue Sep 8 2026 Job Description:

The Vice President for Equity and Inclusion is a strategic leader, campus practitioner, and organizational capacity builder who advances equity, inclusion, and belonging through institutional strategy and direct engagement with the university community. The Vice President advances a clear vision and priorities; builds structures, partnerships, and capacity to advance that vision; and remains actively engaged in the day-to-day work of listening, facilitating, responding, problem-solving, and helping the university navigate complex challenges.

The successful candidate will be an influential and highly relational leader who can advance a compelling vision while also doing the work necessary to bring that vision to life. They will be equally comfortable advising senior leaders, building collaborative relationships with faculty and staff, meeting with students, facilitating difficult conversations, mediating conflict, leading workshops, responding to emerging campus concerns, and connecting the University to expertise or resources beyond their own.

They will understand that their role is not to personally solve every equity challenge, but to build the structures, relationships, knowledge, and capacity that enable the entire University to take shared responsibility for fostering an equitable and inclusive community.

Reports to the President of the University

Directly supervises an Executive Assistant and the Director of the Center for Inclusive Excellence (CIE). Indirectly supervises the CIE Program Coordinator and other CIE staff. Provides direction and oversight to faculty participating in fellowships within the division. Supervises other staff as assigned.

• Advances a clear, actionable vision for equity, inclusion, and belonging grounded in evidence-based practices, relevant scholarship, existing institutional frameworks, and the needs and experiences of the university community.
• Translates institutional commitments into sustainable structures, priorities, policies, practices, partnerships, and accountability mechanisms.
• Provides leadership for integrating equity, inclusion, and belonging into the University's strategic planning process, including the development, implementation, assessment, and ongoing refinement of strategic priorities and initiatives.
• Influences organizational change, builds consensus, and advances complex institutional priorities across organizational boundaries.
• Provides strategic leadership for the Center for Inclusive Excellence (CIE), communicating its identity, purpose, priorities, service model, organizational structure, and approach to resource allocation, including identifying and developing appropriate partnerships across university departments to ensure the division has access to the resources, expertise, and institutional support needed to effectively carry out its work.

• Maintains a visible and active presence throughout the university community and regularly engages directly with students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community partners.
• Builds trusting, collaborative, and productive relationships with faculty and academic leaders and partners to strengthen inclusive teaching, learning, scholarship, departmental culture, faculty development, and faculty engagement.
• Collaborates with university offices and divisions in identifying and leveraging internal expertise, conducting needs assessments, and designing professional development opportunities.
• Personally facilitates complex conversations and provides consultation, mediation, and problem-solving support when conflicts or concerns arise related to equity, identity, inclusion, belonging, and organizational culture.
• Brings demonstrated skill in listening, facilitating dialogue, negotiating across differing perspectives, and helping individuals and groups move toward constructive resolution.
• Provides informed, timely, collaborative, and thoughtful leadership in response to emerging campus concerns and incidents affecting members of the university community. Exercises sound judgment in determining when issues require immediate intervention, consultation, communication, mediation, referral, or longer-term institutional action.

• Builds the capacity of faculty, staff,…