Christine Yoshinaga-Itano, interim vice provost and associate vice chancellor for diversity and equity at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has been appointed to the position on a permanent basis, according to Provost Phil DiStefano.
Yoshinaga-Itano has held the position for the past year and has coordinated campus efforts to support programs and policies related to diversity and equity on campus, in addition to providing assistance for faculty, staff and students through the CU-Boulder department of equal opportunity.
"Christie has started a number of important initiatives to recruit and retain outstanding faculty and students of color," DiStefano said. "It is important to the campus for Christie to continue her work based upon the successes we have seen this year, especially in student recruiting."
Yoshinaga-Itano is professor and former chair of the department of speech, language and hearing sciences. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on language acquisition, pediatric audiology and communication skills for individuals with hearing loss. She also has served as acting program director of the women's studies program.
Her research interests are in the area of language development of children with hearing loss. She has directed several projects for deaf and hard-of-hearing children, including infants and toddlers from non-English-speaking homes, for the Colorado Department of Education and the National Institutes of Health.
As a direct result of this research, almost all of the four million infants born in hospitals in the United States currently have their hearing screened prior to hospital discharge and universal newborn hearing screening also is being instituted in countries throughout the world.
Yoshinaga-Itano received her doctorate in audiology and hearing impairment at Northwestern University. She has been a member of the CU-Boulder faculty since 1986.
In her permanent role as leader of the Office of Diversity and Equity, Yoshinaga-Itano will continue to focus on fostering, developing and supporting programs and policies related to diversity and equity on campus and supporting faculty, staff and students through the Department of Equal Opportunity.
For more information on the CU-Boulder Office of Diversity and Equity visit the Web site at .