Dr. Nancy “Rusty” Barceló is the Vice President and Vice Provost for Equity and Diversity at the University of Minnesota and a nationally-recognized leader in the field, with more than 30 years of experience in equity and diversity in higher education.

As Vice President and Vice Provost, Dr. Barceló provides leadership and strategic planning on issues relating to faculty, staff, and student equity and diversity across the University of Minnesota system. Her role also includes administrative and programmatic oversight of units on the Twin Cities campus that provide direct services to faculty, staff, students, and community members. Those units include Disability Services, the GLBTA Programs Office, the Women's Center, Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, and the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence.

Following a life and career path that took her from California to the Upper Midwest, Dr. Barceló first came to the University of Minnesota in 1996 to serve as the Associate Vice President for Multicultural and Academic Affairs; she also served from 1999 to 2001 as Chair of the Chicano Studies Department. In 2001, she left to serve as Vice President and Vice Provost for Minority Affairs and Diversity at the University of Washington. In 2006, she returned to Minnesota to assume her current post as the University’s chief diversity officer and member of the University’s senior executive team.

Before coming to Minnesota in 1996, Dr. Barceló spent more than twenty years at the University of Iowa, where she served as Assistant Dean and Provost for Academic Affairs and received the Distinguished Educator in Diversity Award. Earlier, Dr. Barceló received her Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Iowa, and before that, her B.A. in social work from Chico State University in California.

Dr. Barcelo’s guiding philosophy is that equity and diversity are fundamental to the academic enterprise. She believes that advancing equity and diversity is a shared University-wide responsibility and that leadership on diversity must be collaborative and focused on community building. She believes that an inclusive community that values and affirms differences not only supports individual success and wellbeing but also advances and sustains the university’s teaching, research, and service mission. Indeed, she believes that diversity drives learning and discovery, and that we ensure sustainable excellence only by ensuring that diverse cultures, identities, and ways of knowing and being are reflected, supported, and expressed in all aspects of University life.

Dr. Barceló emphasizes that for students of diverse identities and backgrounds to be successful, they must feel welcome and supported on campus; and that for students to develop the competencies they need to thrive in the world’s diverse communities and workplaces, they need to be taught and mentored by a diverse faculty and have access to diverse knowledge systems and ways of knowing and being, as embodied in inclusive and diversity-infused curricula, pedagogies, resources, and services.

Dr. Barceló has been hailed as a visionary leader for transformational change around issues of equity and diversity and as an astute and dedicated administrator with a gift for community building. Once the only Chicana student at the University of Iowa, she has since become one of the nation’s most highly respected authorities on equity and diversity in higher education. She is also an avid bicyclist and accomplished storyteller, songwriter, and guitarist.

Rusty Barceló