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University News

Message from campus leaders on interim chief diversity officer

Sibby Anderson-Thompkins will serve on both the chancellor’s and provost’s leadership teams, advising the University as it works toward building a campus community in which students, faculty and staff feel that they belong and are equipped to thrive in a global society.

Sibby Anderson-Thompkins
Sibby Anderson-Thompkins. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

Dear Carolina Community,

We are pleased to share that Sibby Anderson-Thompkins will serve as special advisor to the chancellor and provost for equity and inclusion and interim chief diversity officer, effective Feb. 24.

In this role, Sibby will serve on both the chancellor’s and provost’s leadership teams, advising us as we continue to work toward building a campus community in which faculty, staff and students feel that they belong and are equipped to thrive in a global society. Part of this work will entail systematic development of the goals and action items coming out of last semester’s community-building forums. She will also develop systems that emphasize diversity, equity, and inclusion across a breadth of University functions, including hiring, training and professional development; promotion and tenure; teaching, research and evaluation; and budgeting and resource allocation. In addition, she will work with diversity officers across campus to develop and implement opportunities under “Build our Community Together,” the first initiative of the University’s strategic plan, Carolina Next, Innovations for Public Good.

A two-time Carolina alumna, Sibby is currently a special assistant to the vice chancellor for research and the director of the office of postdoctoral affairs, leading the Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity and other diversity-related initiatives for the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. Under her leadership, the Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity has emerged as a national leader in building a pipeline of scholars from underrepresented groups for tenure-track positions at Carolina and at research institutions across the country. Sibby’s leadership and thoughtful stewardship of the program has resulted in strengthened mentoring for scholars, raised awareness of inclusion and implicit bias across departments, and the creation of new partnerships and pathways to the professoriate for biomedical and STEM scholars.

Sibby brings more than 20 years of experience in higher education administration, primarily serving and supporting the success of underrepresented groups. Her extensive experience includes leading strategic planning, assessment and evaluation, faculty diversity recruitment and postdoctoral professional development.

Her first professional engagement at Carolina began in 1991, as an assistant dean in Carolina’s Office of the Dean of Students and an assistant dean in the Office of Student Academic Counseling (now the Center for Student Success and Academic Counseling). She then served as an associate dean of student affairs at Hampshire College in Massachusetts and as a clinical faculty member in education and dean of advising at Agnes Scott College in Georgia before returning to Carolina in 2007. She has authored several commentaries, peer-reviewed articles, reports and other publications on teaching, race, and the postdoctoral enterprise and the recruitment and experience of underrepresented groups in the academy.

Sibby holds a B.A. and an M.A. in communication studies from Carolina and an M.S. in educational research (ethnography and qualitative methods) from Georgia State University, where she also completed her Ph.D. in educational policy studies.

We have commenced a national search for a permanent vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer. In the meantime, please join us in welcoming Sibby to her new role and thanking her for her dedicated service to the University.

Sincerely,

Kevin M. Guskiewicz
Chancellor

Robert A. Blouin
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost