Meet BU’s First Senior Diversity Officer

Andrea Taylor’s parents attended Boston University because a segregated West Virginia kept them from enrolling in graduate school.

Later, Andrea attended BU herself and, in 1968, joined other African American students who occupied the administration building, protesting the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS’55, Hon.’59). By 2009, she was a Microsoft executive—and a University Trustee.

But it’s her latest role that may offer the biggest potential impact—and challenge. Taylor (COM’68) is leading BU’s drive for fairness and inclusion as the University’s first senior diversity officer.

Her mission in broad strokes? Continue to extend our work toward removing systemic racism and bias at all levels of the University.

“I know the community, and I’m aware of its history and also its challenges,” says Taylor, who is one of nine BU alumni in her family. “And clearly, at this particular moment in the history of humankind, we are at an inflection point in that, maybe, this time we might get it right, in terms of how we need to engage in self-examination and self-reflection.”

Taylor relinquished her seat on the Board of Trustees and started her new post in August 2020, reporting directly to President Robert A. Brown. The move comes amid a number of important diversity and inclusion initiatives already underway across different parts of BU. Across the University, groups such as the Dean of Students office, Enrollment & Student Administration, the Diversity & Inclusion office, and the Center for Antiracist Research—as well as the deans of schools and colleges—have all devoted attention to these issues.

In her role, Taylor’s first task was to form and chair an Antiracism Working Group, comprising leaders from across BU. The group will examine processes and policies that may inhibit diversity, equity, and inclusion within the student body, faculty, and staff; make recommendations for modifying those policies and practices; and develop metrics for monitoring progress. She will also work with University leadership to focus on increasing the diversity of staff and students.

“It’s not easy to bring about such a shift as is being proposed in Boston University and the greater society,” she says. “But I think the time has come and there seems to be a willingness and a recognition that there’s no time like the present, that we really need to get on this.”