Coleman named chief diversity officer

Lisa M. Coleman has been named chief diversity officer for Harvard University, Executive Vice President Katherine Lapp announced today (Dec. 11).

Coleman, who has served in a similar capacity at Tufts University for the past three years, also will hold the title of special assistant to the president and will be responsible for developing a strategic approach and the supporting programs and platforms for promoting diversity across campus.

“We are very pleased to be welcoming someone with so much experience to the Harvard community,’’ Lapp said. “She will oversee the coordination of diversity initiatives at the staff level and work closely with key administrators across the University to ensure that Harvard becomes an even more inclusive institution.”

Coleman is a graduate of Denison University in Granville, Ohio, who holds a master’s degree in black studies and women’s studies from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in American studies from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Prior to becoming Tufts’ executive director of the Office of Institutional Diversity, she served seven years as director of its Africana Center and lectured in American studies and women’s studies. Before joining Tufts in 1998, she taught in the City University of New York system.