Celestino Limas

Celestino Limas, dean of students of the College of Arts and Sciences, also serves as Lewis & Clark's chief diversity officer. The chief diversity officer advocates for diversity efforts at the institutional level and assists with local initiatives across the three schools. He is responsible for encouraging the campus discussion surrounding diversity, consolidating Lewis & Clark's efforts in this area, and ensuring that those efforts represent who we want to be as an institution and a community. 

As a member of the Executive Council, the chief diversity officer leads Lewis & Clark's strategic initiative to define, cultivate, and direct the institution's diversity strategy. This project includes the following: 

• Identifying and recognizing what we are already accomplishing in the area of diversity
• Defining what diversity means at Lewis & Clark from traditional and nontraditional perspectives
• Mapping out a comprehensive diversity assessment strategy
• Establishing a town-hall approach to help the Lewis & Clark community develop a shared definition for cultural competency
• Working with campus constituencies to cultivate areas where we can improve our knowledge of and appreciation for diversity as well as our awareness of hegemonic facets of our current practices
• Collaborating with our three admissions offices to recruit and retain students from underrepresented groups and cultivate the on-campus resources necessary to their success
• Creating and strengthening connections with Portland communities of color
• Developing ways that our chief diversity officer can serve as a resource for all areas of campus