February 23, 2007

Purdue alumna to lead diversity efforts in provost's office

Dorothy Reed
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Dorothy Reed, a former Purdue administrator, will return to the West Lafayette campus to take on one of two newly created assistant provost positions aimed at ensuring the success of minority students. Pamella P. Dale Shaw will help expand diversity and sponsored programming efforts.

Reed's responsibilities will include setting and implementing the agenda for Purdue's academic diversity plan, as well as reporting on annual progress. She also will provide direct oversight and management of Purdue's ethnic cultural centers, which include the Black Cultural Center, Latino Cultural Center and the new Native American Education and Cultural Center.

Much of her work with the centers will be based around academic and retention programming aimed at enriching the educational experience for minorities on campus. In addition, Reed will assist Provost Sally Mason in identifying needs, opportunities, priorities and activities in the broader area of educational equity among students.

Mason said Reed will begin her duties this summer.

"Dorothy Reed's background has always been anchored in helping students," Mason said. "These three cultural centers are important factors in helping minorities succeed at Purdue. Students who utilize their resources have a network of individuals to whom they can reach out. Looking at the centers as part of a larger system will provide immense benefits to students."

Reed has been a part of the administrative staff at Michigan State University since 1990. Her most recent appointment as director of the Office of Supportive Services included working with colleges and academic units to assess student academic success. She also worked directly with preprofessional minority students and assisted with minority student recruitment through her work as director of The Charles Drew Science Enrichment Laboratory in the College of Natural Science.

During the 1980s, Reed served as an academic counselor in Purdue's College of Liberal Arts and also worked as director of minority affairs in the College of Science. Reed completed her doctorate in college and university administration at Michigan State University in 2002. She earned her master's degree in vocational education and counseling from Purdue and her bachelor's degree in home economics education from Tuskegee University.

Pamella P. Dale Shaw
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Shaw will take on some additional responsibilities related to and extending from her current activities. She will continue her work as the statewide director of the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation for Indiana and as alliance director of the Midwest Crossroads Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate.

Both programs, funded by the National Science Foundation, were created to help increase the number of underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students receiving degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"Pam's current work will provide a strong foundation for her new duties, which will build on our commitment to academic diversity on campus. She has been tremendously successful in her efforts thus far, and we look forward to expanding her spheres of influence to even more of our students," Mason said.

Prior to coming to Purdue in 2003 to handle the Louis Stokes Alliance, Shaw served as the director of health career programs at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. She earned her master's degree in public health at Kentucky in 2002 and a doctor of dental medicine degree there in 1991.

Writer: Tanya Brown, (765) 494-2079, tanyabrown@purdue.edu

Sources: Sally Mason, (765) 494-9709, sfmason@purdue.edu

Dorothy Reed, dreed@msu.edu

Pamella P. Dale Shaw, (765) 496-7967, ppshaw@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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