President Iuliano announces Dr. Carlos Tasso Aquino as the new Interim Chief Diversity Officer.
August 16, 2021
Dear Members of the Gettysburg College Community,
I am pleased to announce that Dr. Carlos Tasso Aquino will join the Gettysburg College community as our Interim Chief Diversity Officer. Dr. Aquino was secured through The Registry, an executive placement service that specializes in interim placements. He will begin his tenure on August 18 and will serve as a member of the President’s Council.
In this leadership role, Dr. Aquino will ensure that the College continues to make tangible progress on the essential work of advancing our diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) commitments. He will build from the strong foundation Dr. Jeanne Arnold helped to establish, and his initial areas of focus will include: evaluating the progress we have made on priorities established by the College last summer, and reporting to the community on the same; reviewing and assessing each division’s Inclusion Action Plan (IAP); working with the President’s Council, BARC, and others to accomplish our priorities for the coming academic year; participating in the College’s current strategic planning process, and through that, helping the College advance its efforts in integrating DEIB commitments into the overall student experience; being a resource for the ongoing comprehensive examination of the College’s diversity infrastructure, which is seeking to ensure that our efforts are integrated, contemporary, and effective; and engaging with all relevant campus committees and working groups in order to ensure they are achieving their individual goals and coordinating their collective efforts effectively.
Born and raised in Brazil, Dr. Aquino is widely respected as an executive and educator with a long track record of building and guiding diverse teams to address complex, systematic issues. Recently, he served as Director of Business Development and Community Relations at Bryant & Stratton College in Richmond, Virginia, and he currently is the Director and Board Member of the Northern Virginia Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce.
Dr. Aquino’s distinguished career has centered around domestic and international work developing team-based environments, connecting those of varying ethnicities, races, and cultures to drive positive change. In 2016, Dr. Aquino founded and led The Center of Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion, with locations in Tampa Bay, Florida, and Washington, D.C., where he continues to serve as Senior Executive Director. The Center supports all aspects of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, academia, and society, and performs diagnostics to create professional development programs that address the gaps between desired outcomes and current realities. At the Center, he also assisted over 200 members collectively publish more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Aquino is the author of 12 books and more than 110 peer-reviewed articles and presentations; he has completed two post-docs in mechanical engineering and management education from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas; and he has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Diversity Spirit Achievement Award presented by The Diversity Recruiters Network in 2015.
With the academic year ahead comes a unique opportunity for us to translate our institutional DEIB commitments into tangible action—action that is authentically seen and felt by all members of this community. This is our benchmark. I have full confidence that Dr. Aquino and the wisdom, strategic thinking, and passion that he brings will help the College to make the progress we seek—not only in the near term, but solidifying a framework for which we can thoughtfully and ambitiously build out from for many years to come. We are grateful for Dr. Aquino’s leadership during this interim period before conducting a national search for the College’s next permanent Chief Diversity Officer.
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Aquino to the Gettysburg College community!
Sincerely,
Bob Iuliano
President