New Vice President for Social Equity and Inclusion

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) is pleased to name David T. Carreon Bradley, EdD, PhD (he/they) vice president for social equity and inclusion, effective July 1, 2023. Selected through a rigorous search that was led by a committee of faculty, students and staff, Carreon Bradley is the second person to hold this position at RISD. 

“Dr. Carreon Bradley brings an essential mix of scholarly and administrative experience that is a wonderful fit for RISD and this role,” notes RISD President Crystal Williams. “Their background, which includes administrative work and teaching at a broad range of higher education institutions, will enable them to grasp RISD’s unique culture quickly and harness the ongoing good thinking and good work of our community to create and steward a holistic strategic framework that further bolsters RISD’s social equity and inclusion commitments.”

Carreon Bradley currently serves as vice president for equity and justice and senior diversity officer at Occidental College, where they carry out structural and strategic work to increase diversity and inclusion while infusing equity and justice into day-to-day life at the college. They hold a BA in physics with a minor in gender and women’s studies from Grinnell College, a PhD in engineering from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and an EdD in organizational change and leadership from the University of Southern California. 

Earlier in their academic career, Carreon Bradley taught at Vassar College, where they became the first tenured faculty member of color in the Physics and Astronomy department. While at Vassar, they expanded their social equity and inclusion administration work and were appointed as the senior diversity faculty-administrator. They then served as vice president for inclusion, diversity and equity at Smith College and as academic diversity officer at California State University, Fullerton. At Occidental, Smith and Vassar, they also held the title of associate professor of physics. 

Carreon Bradley conducts research in higher education organizational development; diversity, social equity and inclusion in higher education; access and equity in STEM; and acoustics (for which they won the prestigious NSF CAREER Award). They have secured more than 700,000 USD in research and curricular grants, and they helped raise over 2,500,000 USD in institutional grants. They have published three books and 15 refereed articles, and they have presented at over 40 national and international conferences and symposiums. 

In addition, they have developed and facilitated a wide variety of diversity-related workshops and training sessions and served as a leader in the development and execution of strategic plans for six colleges and universities and three professional societies. They served as a leader in the Board of Directors for the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the Liberal Arts Diversity Officers Consortium, the American Institute of Physics and the Acoustical Society of America.

“I am thrilled and honored to be joining the RISD community as the new vice president focused on the imperatives of diversity, inclusion and equity,” notes Carreon Bradley. “Building upon the institution’s rich history and strong commitment to social equity and inclusion, I am excited to engage the full spectrum of diversity amongst the students, staff, faculty and alumni to help leverage RISD’s unique potential by synergizing inclusion and equity with the transformational power of art, design, and culture.”

As RISD’s vice president for social equity and inclusion, Carreon Bradley will focus on creating a more racially just RISD by advancing the institution’s commitment to proactive antiracism and inclusivity and to making consequential, scaled changes across campus. Working closely with students, faculty and staff, Carreon Bradley will set the vision for and lead campus initiatives that help create a more equitable and inclusive institution. 

Carreon Bradley succeeds Tony Johnson (BFA 93 Ceramics) and Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa, who have been serving, respectively, as interim assistant vice president for SEI and interim assistant provost for SEI since summer 2022.