June 21, 2022
Dear Campus Community,
Following a comprehensive national search, I am delighted to announce that Dr. Eloísa Gordon-Mora will join the Gettysburg College community as our new Chief Diversity Officer. Beginning August 8, Dr. Gordon-Mora will serve as a member of the President’s Council and work to advance the institution’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) priorities into the future.
Recognized as one of “35 Outstanding Women in Higher Education” by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, Dr. Gordon-Mora is a renowned leader in DEI practices with a longstanding commitment to democratic civic engagement and social justice. She currently serves as the inaugural University Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). In this leadership role, Dr. Gordon-Mora has worked as the university’s chief DEI architect, responsible for designing and implementing UNR’s first DEI Strategic Action Plan—one that has resulted in measurable progress toward inclusive excellence and, more profoundly, introduced systemic change personally felt by students, faculty, and staff alike.
Throughout her distinguished tenure at UNR, Dr. Gordon-Mora has 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. She has also been instrumental in creating educational campus programming like the recurring UNR series, “Dialogue, Equity, and Democracy,” and a wide range of faculty development workshops on curricular and pedagogical matters. At the state level, Dr. Gordon-Mora is one of two higher education representatives from Nevada on the Northwest Commission of Colleges and Universities’ Equity Council, and she is an active member of the Nevada System of Higher Education’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility Council, for which she served as chair in 2020-21.
Dr. Gordon-Mora previously was the Dean of the School of Social Science, Humanities, and Communication at Universidad Ana G. Méndez and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, both in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Prior to relocating to Puerto Rico, she was Vice President for Government Affairs at Safe Horizon; Executive Director of the Daphne Foundation; and the Executive Director of El Barrio Popular Education Program, an academically recognized, action-based research project of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College—all based in New York City. She earned her Ph.D. in political science, with a concentration on transitions to democracy, from the University of Notre Dame and has taught both domestically and internationally, including at Bates College.
I am deeply grateful to Anne Ehrlich, Vice President for College Life and Dean of Students, for serving as my co-chair on the search. I would also like to offer a special thanks to our executive search firm, WittKieffer, and the members of our search advisory committee: Clayton Brosend ’24; Britney Brunache ’22; Triada Chavis, Academic Administrative Assistant, IDS and IGS; Jennifer Lucas, Executive Director of Human Resources; Gretchen Natter, Assistant Dean of College Life, Executive Director of the Center for Public Service; Linus Nyiwul, Associate Professor of Economics and Africana Studies; Carey Thompson, Vice President for Enrollment and Educational Services; and Alex Trillo, Associate Professor of Biology. Lastly, I would like to express my appreciation to the many faculty, staff, and students who participated in our open forums and contributed throughout this successful search process.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Gordon-Mora on her new position and welcoming her to the Gettysburg College community!
Sincerely,
Bob Iuliano
President