Lemuel Watson

Lemuel W. Watson is associate vice president for diversity, equity and multicultural affairs, acting vice provost for diversity and inclusion, chief diversity officer for the Bloomington campus and senior scientist at the Kinsey Institute. Throughout his career, Watson has emphasized the need to value diversity as a means of understanding our world and for enhancing our understanding of ourselves.

In his role as associate vice president, Watson coordinates, manages and supports efforts related to the office’s anti-racist agenda. He assists with and provides strategic direction for supporting a university culture that values diversity, equity and inclusion; supports IU leadership in developing a framework for transformative actions that help eliminate inequalities across the university; and helps coordinate assessment, program reviews, research and audits related to the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’s initiatives.

As acting vice provost for diversity and inclusion, Watson fosters collaboration between IU Bloomington campus leaders to analyze and coordinate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and their impact; review and enhance current practices, policies, and procedures; strengthen communications around diversity initiatives; and continue efforts to recruit and retain faculty members from underrepresented populations, ensuring that IU’s anti-racist efforts are fully integrated into Bloomington campus initiatives.

As senior scientist at the Kinsey Institute, he helps oversee Kinsey’s efforts to generate collaborative education, research and fundraising related to LGBTQ+ lives and topics. This includes research on LGBTQ+ youth mental health as part of the partnership between Kinsey and the Trevor Project, the world’s most significant suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth.

Areas of Expertise

Anti-racist agenda-setting and implementation, education and policy, minority student retention, minority student experience, racial environments and educational outcomes, LGBTQ youth.

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