A search committee of faculty, staff and students has narrowed down the search for a new Vice President for Institutional Diversity.

Dr. Sonja Feist-Price is the preferred candidate to run the Office of Institutional Diversity, which manages minority retention and engagement programs like the Martin Luther King Center and the Office of LGBTQ Resources.

Dr. Feist-Price is Senior Assistant Provost for Faculty Advancement and has served as an education professor in the Department of Early Childhood, Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling since 2004. She is a licensed psychologist and clinical counselor with two doctorates from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and the University of Kentucky. She sits on the Lexington Commission on Race Relations and served as director of the UK’s African American Studies Research Institute between 2007 and 2011.

Interim Vice President Terry Allen has lead the Office of Institutional Diversity since July of 2015 after former Vice President Dr. Judy “J.J.” Jackson retired after the Spring 2015 semester.

Students are invited to speak with Dr. Feist-Price at a public forum from 5-6pm on Thursday, March 2 in room 121 of the Jacobs Science Building.