By Maggie Vancampen —

University of Louisville President Neeli Bendapudi announced the interim senior associate vice president of the new Office of Diversity and Equity in an email to the community.

Faye Jones, professor of pediatrics and associate vice president for health affairs/diversity initiatives at the Louisville Health Sciences Center, will start the associate vice president role Aug. 1. She will take former Vice Provost Mordean Taylor-Archer’s place until a permanent senior associate vice president can be found.

The position is expected to be filled by July 1, 2020.

“Dr. Jones has a well-documented record of success in both her position as a tenured professor in pediatrics and her role as head of diversity initiatives at the Health Sciences Center,” said the email.

The Office of Diversity and Equity is designed to ensure that U of L follows Bendapudi’s dream of making the university a great place to learn, work and invest. “This office will have responsibility for driving strategy and outcomes for students, staff and faculty as it relates to diversity and equity,” Bendapudi said in her email.

“This position offers an opportunity to accelerate the move of our institution’s positive change forward on a larger level,” Jones said.

“The renewed energy and excitement of the current leadership team reaffirms my desire to lead our diversity initiatives across the campuses.”

Jones said her main goal would be to see the new office actualize the university’s commitment to change. “An initiative that I would take on is to reorganize and engage a broader group of stakeholders across schools and campuses to address our core components of education, research, community engagement and service, and climate.”

Jones earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology at Western Kentucky University and her M.D., Ph.D. and Master of Science in Public Health at U of L.

“We can accomplish a lot by cultivating relationships in order to build cohesive teams to move our strategic plan forward,” Jones said.

File Photo / The Louisville Cardinal