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Date August 19, 2024
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Equity and diversity leader Sylvia Carey-Butler to step down after three years of accomplishment

A leader who has strengthened diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on Brown’s campus, Carey-Butler will pursue opportunities to ensure equity across higher education nationally.

Sylvia Carey-Butler
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Among many achievements, Sylvia Carey-Butler (left) appointed Brown’s inaugural HBCU Presidential Fellow, Elfred Anthony Pinkard (right).

Sylvia Carey-Butler
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As part of her role in reinvigorating the University’s pioneering partnership with Tougaloo College, Sylvia Carey-Butler (right) hosted students from the program in a 2022 gathering at Brown.

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Sylvia Carey-Butler offered introductory remarks at Brown’s 2024 Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture, which welcomed civil rights attorney, scholar and former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Sherrilyn Ifill.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — After more than three years of strong leadership in diversity and inclusion at Brown University, Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity Sylvia Carey-Butler will step down from her position in October.

As the nation continues to witness efforts to defund and dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at colleges and universities in many states, Carey-Butler will pursue opportunities to ensure equity and inclusion across higher education — a long-held career aspiration as part of cementing her legacy in academia.

In a Monday, Aug. 19, letter to the Brown campus, President Christina H. Paxson called Carey-Butler a collaborative and community-focused colleague at Brown and a leader known nationally for her expertise in a field that has continued to evolve.

“Sylvia has been a champion for strengthening programs and initiatives to solidify Brown’s national leadership in integrating a commitment to diversity and inclusion in all that we do,” Paxson wrote. “I am grateful that she helped sustain Brown’s work in DEI by embracing the vision that fulfilling Brown’s promise to be a more diverse and inclusive campus requires contributions from community members at all levels.”

Carey-Butler joined Brown in August 2021, soon after the University launched Phase II of Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion: An Action Plan for Brown University (the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, or DIAP). Since then, she has led efforts to fulfill the mandate of the plan to address barriers to inclusion and create a more equitable academic community. She spearheaded the University’s 2023 Campus Climate Survey to identify areas to strengthen inclusion and belonging; developed new events and resources for building understanding to sustain Brown as a community dedicated to learning across differences; and broadened and deepened Brown’s engagement with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

“I’m truly thankful for the opportunity to serve in this role at Brown. I believe we were able to accomplish a great deal, particularly at a time when so many institutions are being compelled to scale back efforts in this area.”

Sylvia Carey-Butler Vice President for Institutional Equity and Diversity
 
Sylvia Carey-Butler

Among many achievements, Carey-Butler appointed the inaugural HBCU Presidential Fellow and stewarded convenings with presidents of other HBCUs, solidifying Brown’s standing as a national model for cultural and academic exchange. This included reinvigorating the University’s pioneering partnership with Tougaloo College. Earlier this year, Carey-Butler led the Brown-Tougaloo Partnership’s 60th anniversary celebration at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington.

Paxson noted that Carey-Butler embodied the principles of collaboration and shared commitment to making an impact, with a focus on building partnerships across campus. She worked with the John D. Rockefeller Library to launch "Building A Bridge Back to Brown," an oral history project that captured the lived experiences of Black alumni, and she established a DEI Partners Group with colleagues across the institution.

Carey-Butler said that cultivating a community of practice for sharing effective initiatives for advancing diversity and inclusion efforts has been a particular area of emphasis. In her three years on campus, she met with hundreds of students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents and prospective students to advance and support inclusivity across the University. She established the Global Day of Inclusion to provide workshops that facilitate DEI skill-building for staff; co-hosted a symposium on the lives and legacies of Lani Guinier and bell hooks in partnership with the Department of Africana Studies; and enhanced educational and training offerings for students, faculty and staff.

“I’m truly thankful for the opportunity to serve in this role at Brown,” Carey-Butler said. “I believe we were able to accomplish a great deal, particularly at a time when so many institutions are being compelled to scale back efforts in this area. I have especially enjoyed working with faculty, staff and students in a community so committed to the importance of diversity. I know Brown will continue to be successful as the University advances diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Prior to coming to Brown, Carey-Butler built a career as a leader in strategic planning and innovative initiatives in diversity and inclusion at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and the United Negro College Fund. She also held numerous positions in higher education in New York state and served as assistant provost and dean of honors at Dillard University in New Orleans and as associate dean of studies at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Carey-Butler’s last day at Brown will be Oct. 31, 2024, and Paxson said the University will conduct a national search for her successor.

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Diversity and Inclusion Faculty and Staff

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