June 28, 2024
Dear Campus Community,
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Gina Sánchez Gibau to the role of Associate Vice President for Faculty Affairs, Success, and Equity (AVP FASE).
Dr. Gibau currently serves as associate vice chancellor of faculty diversity and inclusion
in the Office of Academic Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
(IUPUI). In this role she provides strategic vision to academic units in support of
their efforts to attract, recruit, retain, and advance a more diverse faculty, while
working collaboratively with deans, chairs, the Graduate School, and university administrators
to promote inclusive excellence as an overall campus value and practice. Gibau has
led and administered several strategic initiatives on campus related to faculty diversification
and development. She co-created and co-directed the IUPUI Next Generation 2.0 program,
a leadership and professional development initiative for women and minoritized faculty
and staff, and administers the Support for Talent Attraction, Retention, and Transition
(START) program, a funding mechanism to support academic units in hiring underrepresented
tenured/tenure track faculty. Under her direction, IUPUI became a member of the inaugural
cohort of APLU’s Aspire Alliance’s Institutional Change Network (IChange). Later,
she collaborated with her IChange colleagues to establish the Midwest Experiences
in Mentoring Excellence (MEME), an initiative designed to improve mentoring experiences
for women and historically marginalized STEM faculty across six Midwest institutions.
She has also served as co-PI of Project EPIC, an NSF ADVANCE grant project.
Prior to her current position, she served as associate dean for student affairs in the IU School of Liberal Arts, where she holds faculty appointments in Anthropology and Africana Studies. With over two decades of experience in higher education, Dr. Gibau has been involved in strategic planning processes, task forces, and self-studies that have informed policy development and implementation as well as improvement processes.
Dr. Gibau’s research interests include racial and ethnic identity development, multicultural pedagogy, and the advancement of underrepresented groups in higher education. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology with a specialization in the African Diaspora from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.A. in Latin American Studies from UCLA, and an A.B. in Latin American and Caribbean Affairs from Rollins College.
Dr. Gibau will begin her position on August 1, 2024. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Gibau to Channel Islands!
I want also to thank the search committee for their excellent work. Members of the committee included José Alamillo, Professor and Chair, Chicana/o Studies; Nancy Deans, Faculty Member, Chemistry; Sonsoles de Lacalle, Professor and Chair, Health Sciences; Cynthia Flores, Associate Professor and Acting Associate Dean, Arts & Sciences; Marie Francois, Professor, History; Alex Garza, Confidential Administrative Specialist, Faculty Affairs, Success, & Equity (FASE); Francisco Magdaleno, Lecturer, Psychology; Andrew Fox, Student Representative; and Sue Andrzejewski, Professor and Dean, Martin V. Smith School (Chair).
Finally, I wish to thank Dr. Bill DeGraffenreid for his two years of service to Channel Islands in the role of Interim AVP FASE. DeGraffenreid has earned the respect of faculty and administration across campus for his knowledge, responsiveness, and commitment to process and fairness. On a personal note, I’ve appreciated Bill’s professionalism and his wise counsel. He will be returning to the faculty at Sac State at the beginning of the Fall semester. I know you will also join me in thanking Bill for his steadfast leadership.
As always, thank you for your continued contributions to the mission of California State University Channel Islands.
Mitch Avila, Ph.D.
Provost
California State University Channel Islands