Announcing the Expanded Appointment of Rosemary Kilkenny (L’87, P’06) as Vice President, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer

April 25, 2019

Dear Members of the Georgetown University Community:

It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of Rosemary Kilkenny (L’87, P’06) to a new and expanded role in our community as our first Vice President, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer.

This new role represents a strengthening of our University-wide commitment to promoting an environment that is ever more inclusive, in which all members of our community can succeed and thrive. It also fulfills a promise we made to our community, three years ago, when I outlined a set of commitments that would provide the framework to deepening our work to promote racial justice on our campuses, including our campus in Doha, and throughout our Georgetown community.

At that time, I shared that in order to advance this work, we would need a new senior officer, a person whose focus would be completely dedicated to supporting these efforts. I can think of no one better prepared than Rosemary to take on this singular leadership challenge as our first Vice President, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer.

Rosemary joined our community in 1980, serving as a Special Assistant to the President for Affirmative Action Programs. In the nearly four decades since, she has had a transformative impact on our University, leading efforts across our campus to help ensure the development and flourishing of members of our community in meaningful ways.

Throughout her tenure, Rosemary has provided leadership and vision on a broad range of initiatives. She has worked to deepen our commitment to educational equity for minority and underrepresented students, to strengthen the climate and resources for our LGBTQ community, to confront and address issues of sexual assault and misconduct in our community, and to recommit ourselves to building a stronger, more equitable and just future for our University.

In addition to serving as Georgetown’s Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity since 2006, Rosemary has played a key role on some of our University’s most important task forces and working groups. We are especially grateful for her exceptional contributions in several recent efforts, including as special advisor to our Task Force on Gender Equity, as well as a member of both our Working Group on Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation and our Working Group on Racial Justice.

Over the years, Rosemary has been consistently recognized for her work with our community. She has been honored with the Law Center’s Paul R. Dean Award, the inaugural Dr. Carol J. Lancaster Award, and most recently with the Distinguished Leader Award at our annual Patrick Healy dinner last January.

Her deep institutional knowledge and dedicated service and expertise in a range of areas and initiatives make Rosemary uniquely poised to take on this new and expanded role, in which she will provide high-level oversight and support for our Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Affirmative Action (IDEAA). She will also help to develop, guide, and implement a range of diversity projects and initiatives, and represent Georgetown on a national level, collaborating with external initiatives and organizations to ensure that our community is striving to emulate and embody best practices in this important work.

To support this move, we will also be adding the position of an Associate Vice President, who will report to Rosemary and manage the day-to-day operations of the IDEAA Office. The search for this new leader will begin immediately. The addition of this staff member will serve to further bolster our institutional framework and commitment, under Rosemary’s leadership.

I wish to take a moment to express my deepest appreciation to Rosemary, for her willingness to assume this new strategic leadership role, and for the outstanding contributions she has made over her nearly four decades here at Georgetown, which have helped prepare us to take this next step. I look forward to the vision and expert guidance she will provide, as we seek to further strengthen the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in every aspect of our Georgetown community in the years ahead.

Please join me in wishing Rosemary success as she takes on this expanded new role on behalf of our University community.

Sincerely,

John J. DeGioia