ANN ARBOR—The founding director of the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan looks forward to building on the center’s first year of what he calls ” an impressive launch” into programs that address the scholarship of diversity.

Phillip Bowman says his vision will be to continue to develop the NCID as a national think-tank on such issues, while also engaging researchers and other key stakeholders in a social change agenda.

“My efforts will be focused toward bridging innovative scholarship with a set of engaged research, education and service activities to promote social change,” said Bowman, who comes to U-M from the University of Illinois-Chicago, where most recently he served as director of the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, a regional center with many of the same goals as the NCID

“The diversity challenges we face as a society are sufficiently complex that if we don’t understand them better, we won’t be able to solve them,” he said. “At the same time, if we don’t consider those challenges in our scholarship, then it becomes trivial and we won’t ever solve them. ” Bowman says it will take multi-level engagement in diversity issues, involving internal and external partners, to work toward social change.

Bowman was named director in mid-August following a national search. His appointment is pending approval by the U-M Board of Regents. In addition to serving as director of the center, he is a professor in the Center for Study in Higher and Postsecondary Education.

“Phil Bowman brings to this important position an excellent track record of scholarship and engagement in diversity issues,” said Teresa Sullivan, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “In particular, his work in the Chicago area establishing the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy is going to be most valuable as our center moves forward. “

NCID, the brainchild of Lester Monts, senior vice provost for academic affairs, was established in May 2005 with a national conference that set a course for the center. A number of programs to address diversity from various perspectives followed, all while the search for a permanent director was underway.

“Dr. Bowman’s vision for the center is broad and well-considered. Both the search committee, headed by Barry Checkoway, professor of social work and urban planning, and I are convinced that he has the experience and skill to mobilize Michigan’s vast resources to better engage both the challenges and opportunities of growing diversity in the 21st century,” Monts said.

Bowman received a doctorate in social psychology from the University and began his professional career at the U-M Institute for Social Research. He also served as an assistant professor in psychology and Afroamerican and African Studies.

While at U-M, he directed an innovative postdoctoral training program in survey research methodology, helped direct a series of landmark national studies at ISR, and has continued to teach a course on Methodological Issues in Quantitative Research on Race and Ethnicity for the ICPSR Summer Program, says Patricia Gurin, acting director of NCID and the Nancy Cantor Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Psychology and Women’s Studies, who worked with Bowman during his tenure at U-M.

“Phil Bowman is an outstanding scholar with extraordinarily broad intellectual interests that make him a natural to head up the National Center for Institutional Diversity,” Gurin said. “He will connect with faculty, students, and staff across our varied academic disciplines as well as with a range of community members outside of the academy. “

ISR Director James S. Jackson agrees his former student is the right choice to lead the center.

“I can’t think of another person whose body of research, leadership skills and level of experience would make a better candidate than Phil Bowman,” Jackson said. “The breadth of his scholarship in political science, sociology, psychology and social work, and his experience using the research to increase understanding and create change, come together in a multidimensional way that will serve the NCID well. “

After leaving U-M, Bowman went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he conducted both theory-driven and policy-relevant research, and provided research training and mentoring for undergraduates, graduate students, and post-doctoral scholars. He then served at Northwestern University, assuming several leadership roles including faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, faculty affiliate at the Joint Center for Poverty Research, coordinator of the Spencer Training Grant in Education and Social Policy, coordinator of the Graduate Program in Counseling Psychology, director of the Summer Academic Workshop, director of the Social and Behavioral Science Scholars Program and interim chair of the Department of African American Studies.

In addition to his doctorate in social psychology, Bowman also earned an Ed. S. degree in counseling psychology and student affairs in higher education from U-M, and he holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and industrial technology from Northern Arizona University.

Bowman’s scholarship focuses on diversity issues in research methodology, higher education and public policy; social psychological issues in racial/ethnic disparities, and African American Studies. He is an active national and international lecturer and consultant on diversity issues in research methodology, higher education and public policy.

He has been a Rockefeller and Senior Ford Postdoctoral Fellow and his research has been supported by several sources, such as the Spencer Foundation, state agencies, and a number of federal agencies, including the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Aging and the National Science Foundation.

The National Center for Institutional Diversity aims to prepare people for active engagement in a diverse society and works toward building productive inclusive communities at the University of Michigan and beyond. Inspired by the overarching vision of higher education’s critical role in promoting knowledge, justice, and opportunity in a diverse democracy and global economy, the center engages in several core practices: Investigating the value of diversity through multiple perspectives; identifying, evaluating, and supporting best educational, institutional, and community practices for pursuing and benefiting from diversity; cultivating and moderating public and academic discourses on diversity, providing tools to help sustain connections across differences; and anticipating, preparing, and planning for an increasingly diverse and interconnected world.