Meet Fielding Graduate University’s new Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Dr. Allison Davis-White Eyes

Dr. Allison Davis-White Eyes, Ph.D., brings over 30 years of experience in higher education leading change in diversity, equity inclusion, access, and policy. Her efforts are best exemplified through her work at both University of Oregon (UO) and Oregon State University (OSU) that focused on strategic organizational change, community building, inter-departmental collaboration, interdisciplinary teaching and research, international partnerships, Indigenous policy, academic partnerships, and student development (both graduate and undergraduate).

As the former Director of Community Diversity Relations within the President’s Office of Institutional Diversity, and as an Asst. Vice Provost of Student Affairs and Diversity, Dr. Davis-White Eyes led several innovative change initiatives that leveraged faculty and student strengths to build a community that honors diversity, welcomes open dialogue, seeks understanding, and builds strategies to address systemic change. Beginning her higher education journey in 1988, Dr. Davis-White Eyes holds vast experiences in numerous university areas including faculty affairs and teaching, enrollment management, student success, strategic enrollment planning, alumni engagement, student affairs, Tribal/community relations, and policy creation at the executive and statewide level. She has served in key academic administrative positions at both University of Oregon and Oregon State University, and currently holds executive board memberships in national organizations. Her true passion for diversity, equity and inclusion goes beyond DEI to encompass building a culture and ethos that humanizes educational systems. Dr. Davis-White Eyes is a nationally and internationally recognized leader, speaker, and author on this very topic.

Dr. Davis-White Eyes earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in American History), and her Master of Arts from UCLA in American Indian Studies with a specific focus on History and Law. In addition, Allison earned her Ph.D. from OSU in Adult Higher Education with an emphasis on International Education. Currently, Dr. Davis-White Eyes is affiliate faculty within the School of Public Policy and the School of Language, Culture and Society. Her research areas of interest include: post-colonial cosmopolitanism, subaltern research ethics and decolonizing methodologies, mobilities of culture and identity, queering of identity and space, as well as intersectionality in theory and organizational praxis.