Leadership Initiative 2022–2023

Enobong (Anna) Branch, PhD

Senior Vice President for Equity (she/her), Rutgers University

Anna (Enobong) Branch, PhD is a scholar and strategist who helps move organizations and leaders from well-meaning to well-doing. She serves as the senior vice president for equity at Rutgers University and provides strategic leadership to ensure that the institutional commitment to equity is reflected in the research, educational, and community engagement efforts that occur throughout the university and the focus extends to faculty, staff, and students.

Prior to joining Rutgers University, Dr. Branch served as associate chancellor for equity and inclusion at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst. Her significant accomplishments in that role included leading the integration of diversity throughout the campus strategic plan, executing the university’s campus climate survey, creating diversity infrastructure through climate advisors in executive areas and diversity officers in schools and colleges, and leading the National Science Foundation funded ADVANCE program pursuing innovative organizational change strategies to spur institutional transformation and support racial and gender equity in the faculty ranks.

A professor of sociology, Dr. Branch’s commitment to advancing equity extends to academic research on labor and work that explores the historical roots and contemporary underpinnings of racial and gender inequality. She is the coauthor of Black in America: The Paradox of the Color Line (2020), the editor of Pathways, Potholes, and the Persistence of Women in Science: Reconsidering the Pipeline (2016), and the author of Opportunity Denied: Limiting Black Women to Devalued Work (2011). A sought-after national expert on diversity in the academy, Branch serves on several advisory boards that aim to advance inclusive excellence within professional societies, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Action Collaborative, the Association of American Universities Racial Equity Advisory Board and more. Dr. Branch received her PhD in sociology from the University at Albany, SUNY and her B.S. in biology from Howard University.

Rosalie Richards, PhD

Associate Provost, Stetson University

As Associate Provost for Faculty Development, she is responsible for leading all aspects of teacher-scholar faculty development and support, with a focus on enhancing excellence and innovation in learning and facilitating an inclusive learning environment of intellectual vibrancy. This ranges from faculty development to international learning and undergraduate research to online learning.

Prior to joining Stetson in 2014, she served as the first Kaolin-Endowed Chair in Science and Georgia Eminent Scholar at Georgia College & State University, the state’s public liberal arts university. Richards was the founding director of the award-winning Science Education Center and was responsible for collaboratively raising over $10 million in private, state, and federal grant support to advance STEM education in the state of Georgia. At Georgia College, she served as professor of chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Physics & Astronomy. Between 1996–2001, Richards served as the first NASA-National Science Foundation Model Institutions for Excellence Scholar-Teacher at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA. While a doctoral student, she taught chemistry as an adjunct professor at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, CA, and was a member of the Drew University of Medicine’s MCAT Boot Camp staff in Los Angeles, CA.

Dr. Rosalie A. Richards holds a B.S. in chemistry with physics from the University of the Virgin Islands, earned a PhD in chemistry from the University of Southern California, and received a certificate in project management from the Keller Graduate School of Management.

Maria Thompson, PhD

President and CEO, Retired, Coppin State University

Maria is a career educator whose work experience spans a variety of institutional categories, including research universities, comprehensive universities, land-grant universities, urban located, rural located, HBCUs, and PWIs. She was president and CEO of Coppin State University (CSU), provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York (SUNY), and vice president for research and sponsored programs at Tennessee State University.

Maria earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Tennessee State University, a Master of Science degree from the Ohio State University, and a doctorate from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

De Angela L. Duff

Associate Vice Provost, NYU, and Industry Professor, NYU Tandon School of Engineering

In her role as Associate Vice Provost, De Angela works closely with Vice Provosts Clay Shirky and Charlton McIlwain. She aides and reviews work on online courses & degrees and other technology-enhanced education, as well as serves a leadership role in setting and executing the strategic vision for the Faculty Resource Network (FRN). She also assists with other leadership, faculty development, or teaching & learning initiatives, managed by the Provost’s Office. She holds an MFA in Studio Art (Photography) from MiCA, a BFA in Graphic Design from Georgia State University, and a BS in Textiles from Georgia Tech.