WittKieffer Places Chief Diversity Officer at Gettysburg College
September 29, 2022 – After a national search, Oak Brook, IL-based search firm WittKieffer has placed Eloísa Gordon-Mora as the new chief diversity officer of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. Christine Pendleton, senior associate, and Randi Miller, associate, led the assignment. Dr. Gordon-Mora serves as a member of Gettysburg’s president’s council and is charged with advancing the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities into the future.
“I am delighted by Dr. Eloísa Gordon-Mora’s decision to join the Gettysburg community,” said Gettysburg college president Bob Iuliano. “She is the ideal person to partner with the campus to build off the foundational work established by Dr. Jeanne Arnold, the college’s inaugural chief diversity officer. Eloísa is committed to this work and brings with her extraordinary experience, enormous personal warmth, and a belief in what this college represents and in our ambitions for our community and beyond.”
Dr. Gordon-Mora was previously the inaugural university diversity and inclusion officer at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). As UNR’s chief DEI architect, she was responsible for designing and implementing the university’s first DEI strategic action plan. Throughout her tenure, Dr. Gordon-Mora partnered with the university and surrounding community to organize and champion advocacy efforts, including around issues of immigration, domestic violence, DACA, and educational policy, bias, and racial injustice, anti-Semitism, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and poverty.
Strong Experience
Dr. Gordon-Mora said: “As president Bob Iuliano has stated with respect to our current history, Gettysburg College is particularly ‘positioned at the intersection of a defining moment of American democracy’—indeed, not only in preserving our understanding of democracy, but through engaged and profound teaching and learning to forge ahead a fuller and more sustainable evolution of the nation’s democratic experience; and honestly, what could be more important than that? Gettysburg College’s history, mission, and educational practice speak deeply to me and I cannot think of a more inspiring place to be.”
Prior to UNR, Dr. Gordon-Mora was dean of the School of Social Science, Humanities, and Communication at Universidad Ana G. Méndez (UAGM) and vice president for academic affairs at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, both in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In these roles, she focused on curricular, co-curricular, and programmatic developments and strategies not only to promote greater retention and graduation rates, but also to advance inclusionary practices addressing class, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, ability, and other considerations from an intersectional lens.
Prior to relocating to Puerto Rico in 2007, Dr. Gordon-Mora worked in New York City for more than a decade, advancing a variety of academic, non-profit, and community projects.
Dr. Gordon-Mora earned her doctorate in political science, with a concentration on transitions to democracy, from the University of Notre Dame. She has taught at Bates College in Lewiston, ME; Universidad de la Frontera in Temuco, Chile; Marymount Manhattan College and Eugene Lang College of the New School for Social Research, both in New York City; and at UAGM. Her research interests include higher education, diversity and inclusion, democratic theory, social violence, and post-colonial and post-structuralist literature.
Related: WittKieffer Assists UConn in Landing New Chief Diversity Officer
Gettysburg College is a highly selective national, four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences. With a student body of about 2,400, it is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. The College was founded in 1832.
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WittKieffer assists hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, medical schools, and physician groups; biotech, pharmaceutical, diagnostics and medical device companies; colleges and universities, and not-for-profit community service and cultural organizations with senior administrative recruiting assignments. With more than 100 search professionals nationwide, its consultants recruit CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CNOs, physician executives, and other leaders.
WittKieffer Assists Colorado State University with Recruitment of VP for Diversity and Inclusion
WittKieffer has placed Kauline Cipriani as VP for diversity and inclusion for Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, CO. Leading the assignment were Charlene Aguilar, consultant; Christine Pendleton, senior associate; and Bree Liddell, associate. “We are just thrilled to welcome Kauline to the leadership team of Colorado State University,” said Joyce McConnell, president of CSU. “She is taking on this critical role with a track record of success wherever she’s been and will be able to build on the excellent work done by her predecessor, Mary Ontiveros.”
Ms. Pendleton, who works out of WittKieffer’s Oak Brook office, joined the firm in 2014. She works to identify presidents, chancellors, provosts, vice presidents, deans, and chief diversity officers on behalf of public and private universities and colleges and other senior leaders in non-profit organizations. She is a member of the firm’s diversity council and director of its community fund.
Ms. Miller, based in Philadelphia, serves in WittKieffer’s education practice. She supports clients in identifying diverse candidates who are change agents for key administrative roles on campus. Prior to joining WittKieffer, Randi was the associate director for regional enrollment in the Mid-Atlantic at Miami University in Oxford, OH. Previously, Ms. Miller worked as the associate director within student affairs at an institution in Philadelphia that focuses on healthcare and science.
Related: WittKieffer Seeking Chief Diversity Officer for Brandeis University
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media