Kimberly Hewitt Reappointed to Second Term as Vice President for Institutional Equity

VP for institutional equity Kimberly Hewitt

Kimberly Hewitt has been reappointed to a second five-year term as vice president for institutional equity and chief diversity officer, President Vincent Price announced this week.

Hewitt has served as the leader of the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) since August 2019. The appointment came after a regular review of Hewitt by an eight-person committee of senior faculty and campus leaders chaired by Abbas Benmamoun, vice provost for faculty advancement.

“Kim is an outstanding leader who fosters excellence by advancing equity and inclusion and supporting all members of the Duke community in reaching their full potential,” Price said. “Colleagues throughout the university rely on Kim for her wise counsel and her thoughtful and effective approaches to institutional equity, and I am delighted that she will continue to serve the university in this capacity.”

As vice president for institutional equity, Hewitt oversees an office that works to advance excellence at Duke by building a campus environment that is welcoming and supportive to all employees, faculty and students. The office staff work with faculty to develop responsive educational engagements for students; address discrimination and misconduct concerns; foster resolution of disputes; and advise on and support equitable and diverse hiring, retention and advancement practices.

During Hewitt’s first term she promoted several successful initiatives, including:

  • Introducing a new organizational structure and process improvements within OIE to improve efficiency in response to complaints of discrimination and harassment.
  • Expanding educational offerings for the Duke community, and instituting an OIE liaison program to support members of the Duke community reporting concerns of discrimination, harassment and other misconduct.
  • Advancing racial and social equity across the university as co-chair of REAC and through the introduction of the Duke Annual Report on Racial Equity (DARRE).  The purpose of the DARRE is to establish baseline measures to track progress on racial equity efforts across units at Duke.

Hewitt also oversaw the development and administration of the university-wide Campus Culture Survey. The survey, administered first in 2021 and again in 2024, collects feedback from students, faculty, and staff regarding their lived experiences at Duke, and is used to identify areas of concern both within individual units and at the university-wide level.

Prior to coming to Duke, Hewitt served as the vice provost for institutional equity at Johns Hopkins University from March 2017 to July 2019. At Johns Hopkins, she led the university’s efforts to comply with equal opportunity laws including Title IX and oversaw the ADA compliance function.

She also previously served as the director of the Office for Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA) and deputy chief of staff for the Office for Equity and Diversity at the University of Minnesota. As the Director of EOAA she led a team of investigators on issues of discrimination, harassment and sexual misconduct and oversaw the University’s Affirmative Action Program.

Hewitt started her career in higher education as assistant dean for students and multicultural affairs at Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, after practicing employment, labor and education law as a partner in the firm Rider Bennett, where she was chair of the education law practice. She also served as an in-house attorney for the Minneapolis Public Schools.

Hewitt holds an A.B. from Stanford University and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School.