Reese Chosen to Lead Duke's Office of Institutional Equity

DURHAM, N.C. -- Benjamin D. Reese Jr. has been selected to become Duke University's new vice president for institutional equity, overseeing efforts to promote diversity and foster equal opportunity within the university and health system.

President Nannerl O. Keohane said Wednesday she will recommend Reese's appointment when the Board of Trustees meets this weekend.

Reese will succeed Sally M. Dickson, who served in the post for three years before announcing on April 17 that she will return to Stanford University to assume a newly created position as associate vice provost for faculty development and associate dean of humanities and sciences. Keohane said Reese will serve until December 2004 or until her successor as president is ready to appoint a permanent vice president for institutional equity. Keohane plans to step down as Duke's president in June 2004.

Reese, 56, joined Duke in 1996 as an assistant vice president in the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE), where he oversees efforts to enhance cross-cultural relations across the institution. He is a clinical psychologist who has worked for nearly 30 years as a consultant to universities, hospitals and other organizations in the areas of race relations, diversity and conflict resolution.

"Ben has successfully led a number of important initiatives at Duke," Keohane said, "and he will provide strong leadership for the Office of Institutional Equity and the university as a whole as we advance our efforts to build a community that is rich in diversity and respects the contributions of all of its members."

Reese helped create and lead a diversity initiative at Perkins Library that was the co-winner of Duke's first Diversity Award. He also developed a diversity planning guide for managers and coordinated the development of an online module on "Equity & Employment" for physicians. He is the co-leader of the Diversity Leadership Group in Duke Hospital, an initiative he helped develop to increase staff diversity and improve the equity of work processes and systems.

In his new role, Reese will work with the senior leadership of the university and health system, and with managers and others across the Duke community, to ensure fair employment search processes, respond to complaints of harassment or unlawful discrimination and oversee processes for affirmative action and equal opportunity. He also will help develop new strategies to promote diversity and a respectful work environment. In addition, OIE will continue to play a leadership role in Duke's Women's Initiative, helping to implement its forthcoming recommendations.

"I think we as an institution are making important strides in diversifying our workforce, but we have significant challenges ahead in providing professional development and promotional opportunities for employees at all levels," Reese said. "We need to focus not only on innovative programs and strategies to promote diversity and inclusion, but on building systems that make these approaches truly a part of the way that Duke does business."

Reese moved to North Carolina from New York, where he held positions as associate director of The Fifth Avenue Center for Counseling and Psychotherapy; a psychologist in private practice; ombudsperson for The Rockefeller Foundation; and founder and director of The Institute for the Study of Culture and Ethnicity.

Reese's wife, Cynthia L. Frazier, is a clinical psychologist with a practice in Raleigh. He has two older sons and a 12-year-old daughter.