Valencia, CA, September 6—On July 25, 2016, Eva Graham was appointed Institute Diversity Officer at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). She will also serve as the Institute’s Title IX coordinator. For her new role at CalArts, Graham will work in the Office of the Provost to ensure that the Institute remains at the forefront of advocacy for diversity in the arts and arts education.
 
To fill the position of Institute Diversity Officer, the committee sought a candidate who was excited by the possibility of working with a dynamic creative community and fearless about helping the community confront unconscious biases.  
 
“We are at a pivotal moment with an increasingly diverse and activist student body, renewed energy around our curriculum, great opportunities for hiring the next generation of academic and administrative leadership, and heightened urgency on the national and international level regarding pressing questions of identity, community, and freedom of expression,” said CalArts ProvostJeannene Przyblyski. “We believe Eva is uniquely poised to work with us collaboratively and proactively toward an ever more inclusive, respectful, responsive, and culturally competent CalArts.”
 
Before coming to CalArts, Graham was the director of the Center for Diversity at California Institute of Technology for seven years and before that was the manager of the Minority Education Initiatives at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for six years.  Her career in higher education has been grounded in the theory and practices for creating access and promoting diversity and student success in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) education.
 
“It continues to be my experience that the brightest students and educators perform at their highest levels when inquiry and differing points of discourse are used as curricular tools,” said Graham. “This process increases focus and creates academic spaces where students, staff, and faculty feel safe and are appreciated for their individual attributes. It creates opportunities for the kinds of engagement that leads to deep learning and that diversity in perspective and approach fosters innovation.”
 
Graham received an M.S. in Organic Chemistry from Tuskegee University and a Doctorate in Higher Education/Science Education from the University of Southern California. 
 
Ranked as America’s top college for students in the arts by Newsweek/The Daily Beast, California Institute of the Arts has set the pace for educating professional artists since 1970. Offering rigorous undergraduate and graduate degree programs through six schools—Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater—CalArts has championed creative excellence, critical reflection, and the development of new forms and expressions. As successive generations of faculty and alumni have helped shape the landscape of contemporary arts, the Institute first envisioned by Walt Disney encompasses a vibrant, eclectic community with global reach, inviting experimentation, independent inquiry, and active collaboration and exchange among artists, artistic disciplines and cultural traditions.