Dear campus community,
I am pleased to welcome Professor Sharon Block as associate vice provost in the Office of Inclusive Excellence (OIE). Her appointment begins on September 1.
Sharon Block is a professor of history in the School of Humanities and served as an interim associate director in OIE last year. She has published widely on the histories of race and sexual violence, as well as on contemporary issues of bias and equity in academia. Both her teaching and research engage strategies to end power-based violence and center the histories of African Americans, American Indians, and women. She was recently a fellow at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
In her role in OIE, Professor Block will oversee a variety of programs focused on increasing diversity and creating inclusive communities among graduate and postdoctoral scholars. This includes directing the acclaimed Diverse Educational Community & Doctoral Experience (DECADE) Mentor program which engages more than 40 faculty consultants in departmental planning and programming to recruit and retain diverse graduate students. As the campus liaison for the prestigious UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship (PPFP) and UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship (CPFP) programs, she will chair the Society of Inclusive Excellence Fellows, developing programming and educational opportunities for the campus’s past and present President’s / Chancellor’s postdoctoral fellows and their mentors. These competitive postgraduate programs have supported more than 800 participants since the UC PPFP founding in 1984, nurturing talented postdoctoral scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service contributes to diversity and equal opportunity across UC. During 2021-22, Professor Block worked to strengthen these signature programs by creating new opportunities for community, developing a new mentoring program for postdoctoral scholars, and designing a pilot program to maximize DECADE’s effectiveness moving forward.
A former Inclusive Excellence Professor, she brings to OIE many distinguished accomplishments and long-term engagement in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Professor Block is a former UCI Chancellor’s fellow and recipient of several awards to enhance student mentoring and scholarship, including receiving UCI’s first funding through the UC-Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative. She has been a repeated UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program mentor and application reviewer, an equity advisor, and a formal mentor to numerous UCI faculty through the ADVANCE program. She has enacted her deep and abiding commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in multiple administrative roles, including as associate dean in the School of Humanities and as chair of the Academic Senate Council on Academic Personnel.
Professor Block earned a combined Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in history from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in history from Princeton University.
Please join me in congratulating Professor Block on her new role.
Douglas M. Haynes, Ph.D. (Pronouns: he/him/his)
Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Chief Diversity Officer
Director, ADVANCE Program
Professor of History