ACE announced today that Santa J. Ono,
president of the University of Cincinnati, will receive the 2016
Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award.
The award is named in honor of Reginald
Wilson, senior scholar emeritus at ACE and founding director of the
Council's Office of Minority Concerns (now part of the ACE Inclusive
Excellence Group), and is presented annually to an individual who has
made outstanding contributions and demonstrated sustained commitment to
diversity in higher education.
The award will be presented during the closing plenary of ACE2016, ACE's 98th Annual Meeting, on March 15 in San Francisco.
"Santa Ono is an engaged diversity leader
with a tenacity of spirit and conviction who consistently provides
opportunities for access and advancement in higher education," said ACE
President Molly Corbett Broad. "I am honored to add his name to the
list of Wilson Award winners who have honored Reginald Wilson's legacy
and commitment to ensuring inclusion for all students."
Ono has served as the 28th president of the
University of Cincinnati (UC) since 2012. He is the first Asian American
president of the university and in the state of Ohio.
During his tenure at UC, Ono has been an
outspoken advocate of increasing diversity and inclusion at all levels
of the university. He has created the most diverse executive team in the
institution's history, with nearly 40 percent of its members African
American and women. He appointed the institution's first full-time chief
diversity officer.
He worked with the chief diversity officer to
launch the university's Diversity Plan and designed a mechanism to
monitor progress toward goals annually. Additionally, he encouraged the
sale of UC's presidential residence to create the equivalent of a $3
million endowment for student scholarships supporting underrepresented
minorities and those with financial need.
He has utilized his social media expertise to
connect directly with students and community members about a range of
diversity issues in personal and meaningful ways. He also convened a
forum to discuss equity in our criminal justice system and announced
that his office will provide seed funding for faculty, staff and
students to conduct research, develop new courses or host speakers
related to ensuring equity within our criminal justice system. He has
also implemented a new safety and reform initiative and has met with
African American student activists, including a group called The Irate
8, to take steps to help the university become more inclusive.
Ono also serves as chair of the Urban Serving
Universities Health Strand. Under his leadership, senior leaders in
UC's College of Nursing led a landmark survey of holistic review in the
admissions process to increase diversity in the health professions.
An avid cellist, he has teamed with
MYCincinnati, an urban-based string ensemble for Cincinnati youth, to
perform together at a variety of public events.
Previously, he served as UC's provost and
senior vice president for academic affairs from June 2010 until his
appointment as president in 2012.
Ono served as senior vice provost and deputy
to the provost at Emory University (GA) prior to arriving at the
University of Cincinnati. While at Emory University, Ono served as a
founding member of the Board of Directors of the Posse
Foundation-Atlanta, introduced the Questbridge program into the
university and helped launch the Emory Advantage program that has
significantly diversified the student population at that university.
Born in Vancouver, Canada, Ono earned his Ph.D. at McGill University in Montreal and his B.A. at the University of Chicago.