Brighid Dwyer
As the vice dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Brighid Dwyer, Ph.D., provides leadership in pursuit of the School’s core commitments to achieving and maintaining excellence through diversity. She has twenty years of experience as a practitioner, scholar, and professor addressing issues of equity in higher education. Before joining Penn in 2021, she served as associate dean for diversity and inclusion at Princeton University, where she worked with a wide range of campus partners to develop and implement strategies, programs, and curricula that promoted an inclusive community.
Dr. Dwyer also spent seven years at Villanova University as Assistant Professor in the Departments of Education and Counseling and the Department of Communication and served as the Director of the Program on Intergroup Relations (IGR) and Assistant Director of Research & Training. Prior to her time at Villanova, Brighid was an Adjunct Sociology Professor at Delaware County Community College.
Brighid has published numerous articles and book chapters on the topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion, intergroup dialogue, leadership, and organizational culture and identity at minority-serving institutions.
She serves on the boards of the Difficult Dialogues National Resource Center, the New Leadership Academy, and Marin Academy High School.
Previously, Brighid had a career in athletics. She served as an academic advisor, coach, and administrator at UCLA, University of Michigan, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, and the Black Women in Sport Foundation. She was a 2000 Olympic Swimming Trials qualifier and an NCAA All-American. Presently, she consults with USA Swimming on their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
Dwyer has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan.