VP for Diversity Interim Appointment

This note was emailed to the campus community earlier today on behalf of President Michael K. Young, and Provost and Executive Vice President Carol A. Fierke

We are pleased to inform the campus community that Dr. Annie S. McGowan has been named interim vice president and associate provost for diversity at Texas A&M University effective Dec. 1. She brings to the Office for Diversity noteworthy leadership experience. Most recently, Dr. McGowan served as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs at Mays Business School, where she holds the Bill and Gina Flores Professorship in Business. She also serves on the university’s Diversity Operations Committee.

Prior to serving as Associate Dean, Dr. McGowan was Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at Mays from 2016 to 2018. During that time, she created and provided strategic oversight for the Mays Office of Diversity and Inclusion and led initiatives to recruit and retain underrepresented students in order to foster a climate of inclusivity and engagement. Her teaching interests are managerial/cost accounting and her current research centers on the implications of cost management system design and the determinants of academic success for first-generation students.

Dr. McGowan will assume the role currently held by Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman, who has accepted the position of Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer, and the inaugural Ida B. Wells and Ferdinand Barnett Professor in the Department of Communication Studies in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. Dr. Means Coleman’s last day at Texas A&M is Dec. 31.

We appreciate the strides Dr. Means Coleman has made in improving diversity, inclusion, and equity at Texas A&M during her two years here. She introduced the Accountability, Climate, Equity, and Scholarship (ACES) faculty pipeline program. Twice, Texas A&M has received Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award and was recognized as a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity magazine. The HEED Award is a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion.