Vice Provost for Institutional Inclusive Excellence Monroe France Stepping Down June 27

May 29, 2025

Dear Tufts community members,

I write to share that Monroe France, our vice provost for institutional inclusive excellence, will be stepping down from his position on June 27 to return home to New York and focus more deeply on his research, scholarship, and consulting work. This is not a decision that has come lightly or abruptly; Monroe shared his decision with me earlier in the semester after considerable reflection. While we will miss his day-to-day presence, he will continue to be a part of the Tufts community through his professor of the practice appointment at Tisch College.

Monroe has been a driving force since arriving at Tufts in April of 2023. His expertise, strategic partnership, and care for our university community have been profound. He joined Tufts at a critical moment and has helped us take a meaningful step forward in advancing inclusive excellence. He first embedded himself within the community, engaging in a multitude of listening sessions with faculty, staff, and students to understand the university and build relationships. He also initiated and completed a secondary analysis of our first-ever university-wide campus climate survey. Both of these efforts served as the foundation for the work he and his team are now leading through ELEVATE, a multi-year effort to create a set of university-wide goals for advancing institutional inclusive excellence and make significant coordinated institutional progress toward achieving those goals.

Monroe, a leader who challenged us all to lean into possibilities, helped reimagine and restructure his office around institutional inclusive excellence, building a cohesive, values driven, and collaborative team. Under his leadership, they developed a framework for dialogue, learning and inclusive leadership for faculty, staff, and students, strengthening partnerships with Tisch College to support these efforts. In support of faculty innovation, they developed a strategy for inclusive faculty development and engagement. Similarly, in support of our staff, they intentionally developed programming for staff and administrative excellence. Collectively, this team continues to create purposeful spaces for community and reflection and increased partnership with our associate and assistant deans for inclusive excellence and other key stakeholders, including alumni.

On a personal note, I want to acknowledge how much I, along with the rest of my senior team, the deans, and colleagues across the university, have valued Monroe’s partnership, counsel, and leadership, particularly as we have navigated the changing landscape of higher education.

I recognize Monroe’s departure comes at an unprecedented time in higher education when many in our community are feeling vulnerable. I want to take this opportunity to affirm our commitment to both our university values and inclusive excellence. The work of the Office of the Vice Provost for Institutional Inclusive Excellence remains pivotal, and we will continue to build on its accomplishments over the past two years. On an interim basis, Alaina Macaulay, assistant vice provost for inclusive excellence and leadership, will lead the office and serve as a member of my senior team. Alaina is well positioned to take on this role as her scope of experience has been expansive. Prior to joining Tufts, she held several key leadership roles, most recently at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she oversaw inclusion and strategic engagement actively managing a portfolio of inclusive learning communities, employee resource groups, advisory councils, campus engagement fund, inclusion taskforces, and large-scale university programming. She continues to collaborate with scholars and practitioners nationwide, advancing inclusive excellence and driving transformative change in higher education leadership and practice. At Tufts, she has directly managed the program staff and the day-to-day operations of the office and has had strategic leadership over ELEVATE, which will continue under her leadership.

We will share more about our next steps with this leadership transition when we can. Meanwhile, in the coming weeks, Monroe and Alaina will provide an update about ELEVATE and the work planned for the summer.

Please join me in extending my sincere gratitude to Monroe and wishing him the best of luck in his future endeavors. He holds my deep admiration and appreciation.

Warm regards,
Caroline

Caroline Attardo Genco
Provost and Senior Vice President