On August 3, the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity bid farewell to its longtime leader, Dr. Sheila Edwards Lange, ’00,’06, who after a nine-year tenure as vice president and vice provost, moved on to serve as interim president at Seattle Central College.
Dr. Sheila, as she is affectionately known to staff and students alike, was celebrated with a gathering at wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ – Intellectual House on her last day at the UW.
Under her leadership, OMA&D made great strides in the work to broaden college access, support student success and enhance diversity-related teaching and learning on campus. Included among the many milestones accomplished with Lange at the helm were the naming and renovation of the Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center, the completion of a 40-plus year dream to build a longhouse-style facility on the UW campus and the passage of a diversity course requirement for all UW undergraduates.
Lange also wrote the initial grant proposal for the Pacific Northwest Alliance for Minority Participation, for which funding was awarded to the UW. In total, she oversaw $71 million in grants and $5 million in scholarships that supported OMA&D programs and students. Lange also helped develop creative faculty recruitment initiatives and actively mentored students, especially those in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.
At the close of her tenure, the UW ranked fifth in number of bachelor’s degrees awarded to minority students, third in master’s degrees and sixth in doctorate degrees according to national rankings of four-year “flagship” state universities.
Farewell Photo Gallery (Click on photos to enlarge)
Photos by Emile Pitre