Assistant Vice-President/Vice-Provost, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

The assistant vice president/vice provost, equity, diversity and inclusion is a member of the senior administrative team and reports to both the provost and vice president academic and the vice-president, administration and finance.

This office directly oversees the Discrimination and Harassment Prevention Office, the Office of Aboriginal Initiatives, and the Accessibility Office. The AVP/VP EDI serves on several Ryerson committees and administrative groups, including Academic Planning Group, Administration and Finance Management Group, Academic Standards, Accessibility Steering Committee, Aboriginal Education Council, Ombuds Committee and Academic Senate.

The AVP/VP EDI is responsible for identifying and addressing systemic barriers among the academic and administrative functions of Ryerson along with creating a visible presence for equity, diversity, and inclusion.

This position was created in 2012 and is one of the major recommendations of the 2010 Final Report of the Taskforce on Anti-Racism at Ryerson.

Denise O’Neil Green

Denise O’Neil Green began her position as Ryerson University’s first assistant vice-president/vice provost, equity, diversity and inclusion on September 1, 2012. She brings over 20 years of administrative and teaching experience, along with expertise in diversity research, to shape policies and procedures that reflect the university's goal of setting the standard in equity, diversity and inclusion. Green's role as the AVP/VP EDI has a broad, campus-wide mandate to enhance the institution related to equity, diversity and inclusion and aims play a central role in leading initiatives that will bring about systemic change.

Prior to this, she was the associate vice president for Institutional Diversity at Central Michigan University (CMU), where she served as chief diversity officer for five years. In this capacity, she worked closely with deans and faculty on a variety of projects that ranged from minority faculty recruitment/retention to pipeline programs. She advanced curricular initiatives, spearheaded implementation of the diversity plan, secured grant funding to serve first generation college students, and worked with external constituencies, including the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, on local diversity initiatives. She oversaw the Office of Multicultural Academic Student Services, the Office of Diversity Education, Native American Programs, Pre-College Programs, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Services, and opened the new Center for Inclusion and Diversity, a facility that showcases the growing importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion on CMU’s campus. 

Green’s previous academic positions include working as assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, assistant professor of higher education at the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, and a program director for the University of Michigan's Pathways to Student Success and Excellence Program.  She has taught graduate courses on race and ethnicity in higher education, diversity, and student administration, and was named on the Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent.

Green's dedication to diversity and inclusion has had an impact beyond her campus community, resonating within academic circles. She has authored or co-authored over 60 articles, book chapters, reports and papers, along with lectures on topics including diversity and leadership, diversity and qualitative methods, race and gender, and best practices in implementing diversity initiatives.  She has published in journals, including the Journal of College Student Development, Educational Policy, New Directions for Institutional Research, National Association of Student Affairs Professionals Journal, and New Directions for Community Colleges. She is also coauthor of The Case for Affirmative Action on Campus: Concepts of Equity, Considerations for Practice.  She is also the executive editor of InstitutionalDiversityBlog.com.

Green earned her PhD in higher education and public policy from the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; a master’s degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University; and a bachelor's degree in behavioral sciences from the University of Chicago.

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