November 29, 2023
Dear Trojan community,
We write to share the exciting news that our colleague, Christopher Manning, Vice President and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CIDO), will be leaving USC on February 2, 2024, to serve as Vice President for Student Affairs and Campus Diversity at San Diego State University. This is a return to SDSU for Dr. Manning, who previously served there as an American Council on Education Leadership Fellow.
As our first CIDO, Dr. Manning has worked to establish a new Diversity and Inclusion Council at USC, per the recommendation of the REDI Task Force, including subcommittees for staff, faculty, students, health systems, and more. Through his leadership, USC recently launched a workshop effort to support hiring committees to be more inclusive in their searches for faculty candidates. Other major accomplishments during Dr. Manning’s tenure include developing restorative justice practices as well as partnering to produce an annual minority-serving institutions graduate and professional school conference.
USC’s diversity and inclusion efforts will continue. We will develop a plan to keep the work moving forward and find ways to keep the community informed.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Manning on his new opportunity. We wish him the greatest success.
Sincerely,
Andrew T. Guzman
Provost and Senior Vice President for
Academic Affairs
Felicia A. Washington
Senior Vice President of Human Resources