Angela Vidal Rodriguez

Assistant Vice President for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion

In her 16 years in academia, Dr. Angela Vidal-Rodriguez has strived to create and implement strategies and programming to support diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives across institutional departments and divisions and at points of interface with surrounding communities, with a goal of building a climate of equity and inclusion that promotes student success. This includes the leadership and managerial responsibility for initiatives designed to increase equity of educational outcomes for underrepresented students in higher education.

During her time with the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good at the University of Michigan, Angela worked on examining institutional policies and promoting institutional and policy changes to create more inclusive environments within colleges and universities. She also has cultivated partnerships with other groups intersecting in the achievement of equity goals. She delivered on large-scale complex projects funded by major foundations, developing and implementing action plans, which translated grant deliverables into organizational strategies.

In her tenure as the director of the McNair program at Northeastern Illinois University, Dr. Vidal-Rodriguez worked on collaborative initiatives with internal and external interests to advance program objectives and promote a more inclusive and equitable learning environment in higher education institutions across Illinois. She promoted TRIO programs’ values of creating inclusive and equitable learning environments for underrepresented NEIU students and with community, state, and other external stakeholders.

Dr. Vidal-Rodriguez holds degrees from Anahuac University (Mexico City, Mexico), Northeastern Illinois University (Chicago, IL), and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), including an MBA in Management and Strategy and a PhD in Higher Education with a specialization in Organizational Behavior and Management. 

Education

Ph.D. – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan