Elizabeth F. Ortiz
Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity
An expert with more than 20 years of experience in higher education, Elizabeth F. Ortiz was promoted to vice president for Institutional Diversity and Equity in 2006 after serving as senior executive for institutional diversity for four years.
Ortiz brings special talents in recruiting and retaining a diverse group of students, faculty and staff to higher education with her to DePaul. Ortiz also has worked extensively on higher education and on Latino issues for the last 20 years. Her service includes serving on community and professional boards, developing programs, which emphasize multiculturalism, and recruitment and retention initiatives for diverse student and workforce populations.
Prior to DePaul, she worked at Northern Illinois University (NIU), where she directed Affirmative Action, Diversity and Employee Resources. She also spent 10 years at Chicago State University, serving as director of the Office for Hispanic Programs, university retention facilitator and academic support counselor. Ortiz spent a year at the City Colleges of Chicago as an Adult Learning Skills Program coordinator and began her career in higher education as an admission counselor and, later, a program and recruitment counselor at her alma mater, Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, Ind.
As diversity officer at DePaul, Ortiz reports to the president and is responsible for building alliances with various university constituencies to maximize the university's potential as a truly diverse community of faculty, students and staff. Her functions include: performing an annual audit to assess DePaul's diversity initiatives and programs, including the Affirmative Action Plan; and assisting the president in building diversity relationships with Chicago corporations and civil, neighborhood and religious communities.
Ortiz is president of the Illinois Latino Council on Higher Education (ILACHE) and serves on the executive board of the Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois program.
Ortiz earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Calumet College of St. Joseph. She holds a master's degree in Leadership and Educational Policy from NIU, has completed coursework for a Ph.D. in continuing adult education at NIU, and is putting the finishing touches on her dissertation.
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