Michael L. Vaughan, who has spent more than 25 years as an academic administrator in the University of Delaware College of Engineering, has been appointed the interim vice provost for diversity and inclusion at the University, effective Sept. 1, President Dennis Assanis and Provost Robin Morgan announced today.

Vaughan succeeds Carol Henderson, who became vice provost for diversity and inclusion at Emory University last month. Vaughan will serve in this interim role while a national search is conducted for a chief diversity officer at the University.

“Michael Vaughan shares our deep commitment to enhancing diversity and advancing inclusive excellence here at UD,” President Assanis said. “Michael’s contributions will help maintain our momentum during this transition period while preparing the University to take the next leadership steps in this critical effort.”

The vice provost for diversity works to advance the University's academic mission and goals in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion and human rights by leading efforts to define, assess and cultivate diversity as both an institutional value and an academic priority. In this role, Vaughan will serve as senior adviser to the president and provost on matters of diversity and will collaborate with campus leaders and others on the development and implementation of initiatives designed to support UD's diversity efforts.  

“Michael Vaughan’s extensive knowledge of the University community and his strong working relationships with many individuals in units across the campus make him ideal to serve in this interim role,” Provost Morgan said. “We are so grateful that he is stewarding this important effort.”

Vaughan said, “I am honored to have the opportunity to serve the University in this position and build upon our success in promoting diversity and inclusion as institutional values and academic priorities. There are many broad contemporary challenges confronting our nation and our world that have the potential to impact the undergraduate and graduate learning environment. I believe that colleges and universities have a unique role to play in promoting solutions to these challenges by facilitating and informing conversation; leading action; creating partnerships, alliances, opportunity spaces and other mechanisms to help our students and others to continue to learn, grow, innovate, collaborate and, to the greatest extent possible, reach their full intellectual and developmental potential.”

About Michael Vaughan

Vaughan has served in various roles in the College of Engineering during his tenure at UD. In his current role as associate dean for engineering undergraduate education, Vaughan serves on the college’s senior leadership team and is responsible for the success of the college’s undergraduate education enterprise. He manages overall college-level undergraduate academic infrastructure and processes, including accreditation, enrollment management, advisement, student development and support, academic analytics, K-12 outreach and global engineering. He works closely with colleagues throughout the college and in offices across the campus.

Since 2014, he has held a secondary faculty appointment as an instructor in the college.

Vaughan has been a member of the college’s leadership team since 1992, when he joined the staff as an assistant dean and director of the RISE (Resources to Inspire Successful Engineers) Program, which is designed to inspire undergraduate engineering students from historically under-represented backgrounds to succeed at the highest levels.

For over two decades, he has served as institutional co-principal investigator and campus director for the Philadelphia Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) grant, which has had an impact on the campus STEM diversity infrastructure, both in terms of academic support and staffing. In addition, Vaughan has served as the campus PI on the Alliance-level Bridge to the Doctorate (BTD) effort at UD. BTD efforts focus on effective strategies for recruiting, retaining, educating and graduating participants at the master’s degree level in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines and encouraging their participation in educational pursuits at the Ph.D. level. Vaughan has served as the campus PI for three Alliance-level BTD Cohorts, which have totaled nearly $2.8 million for the University.

In 2018, he received the University’s John Warren Award, which recognizes significant accomplishments by supervisory staff in areas of leadership and service.

Before joining UD, Vaughan was assistant to the dean of engineering and an adjunct assistant professor of electrical engineering at North Carolina A&T State University. He also has prior experience as a senior level electronics engineer at the Naval Underseas Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island.

Vaughan has held various campus leadership positions. He served as co-chair of the University of Delaware Subcommittee on Undergraduate Tuition Campus Budget Model Planning Effort, co-chair of the UD Campus Compact Council, member of the UD Enrollment Management Committee, UD Blue Hen Success Collaborative Leadership Group, UD Committee on Advanced Manufacturing and the UD Working Group for Development of the Campus Framework Plan for Student Life.

Off the campus, he has held several leadership positions—including serving as president of the Executive Committee—at the National GEM Consortium, which brings together a national network of corporations, universities, research centers and government laboratories to promote the participation of under-represented groups in postgraduate science and engineering education and the technical workforce. He has also served as a member of the President’s Advisory Board of the Chesapeake Bay Girl Scout Council, founding member of the Philadelphia Alliance for Minority Participation Executive Steering Committee and convener of the Delaware State University HBCU-UP Advisory Committee. Past distinctions in service include serving as president of the Board of Delaware Futures of Wilmington, Delaware; vice president of the board and director of the Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) based in Alexandria, Virginia; and president of the Board of Trustees of Bethel AME Church, Wilmington, Delaware.

Vaughan received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University. He completed his Ph.D. in civil engineering at UD.