CCA appoints Tricia Brand as inaugural vice president of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging
Tricia Brand, CCA vice president of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB)
San Francisco, CA—Tuesday, December 21, 2021—California College of the Arts (CCA) President Stephen Beal announced Tricia Brand as the college’s inaugural vice president of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), effective April 1, 2022.
Brand comes to CCA after serving as chief diversity officer of Portland Community College (PCC) in Oregon (since 2019). In that role, she has been developing a Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Center at PCC, supported by the American Association of Colleges & Universities. At CCA, in addition to her work articulating a vision for DEIB and setting a college-wide agenda for campus-wide impact, Brand will relaunch the Center for Art and Public Life, focusing the Center’s efforts around campus climate, culture, and programming in support of transformative activities that innovate new ground as a nexus for DEIB values and a vital intellectual community hub.
Before her role as chief diversity officer at PCC, Brand was an associate dean of student development, and served as the college’s interim dean of student development and deputy Title IX coordinator. Prior to PCC, Brand held senior leadership roles at the University of Arizona in Tucson and at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where she also teaches social justice in higher education. She has served on a regional board for the National Association of Student Affairs Administrators and Oregon Women in Higher Education, and is active in other professional organizations related to diversity and higher education policy.
Brand holds an EdM in educational psychology from Rutgers University and an AB in psychology and educational foundations from Washington University in St. Louis.
“CCA has ambitious and bold plans for the years ahead, transforming the college to support different modes of learning and making,” said CCA president Stephen Beal. “In Tricia, we have found an innovative leader who brings the experience and vision to serve as a catalyst for cultural transformation and educational advocacy. As CCA unifies our campus in San Francisco and continues to deepen our connections with the Bay Area creative community, I am excited to work with our new vice president as a partner and collaborator in our work to make ongoing, substantive change for a more equitable society.”
“I am deeply honored to be selected to lead such an important new role at California College of the Arts,” said Brand. “CCA has a long and important history of amplifying community voices in artistic space, and I am excited to become part of the CCA story to establish racial and social consciousness as a cornerstone of the college’s mission.”
“Tricia’s deep experience in higher education and in developing meaningful policy to support DEIB values align perfectly with CCA’s own goals and values,” said CCA Provost Tammy Rae Carland, who chaired the search committee for the role. “There is huge campus-wide enthusiasm and commitment to prioritizing and furthering this work at the college, and Tricia brings the knowledge, expertise, and vision to fully integrate CCA’s DEIB vision with the academic mission.”
As vice president of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, Brand will lead and inform the strategic discussion advancing DEIB activities and values across the institution. In support of these goals, she will provide vision and alignment of initiatives and will bring a sense of shared accountability to this work, empowering the CCA community to implement meaningful and impactful change while fostering a sense of trust, transparency, and openness.
About the Center for Art and Public Life
Established in 1999, the Center for Art and Public Life promotes positive social impact by cultivating and sustaining meaningful connections with CCA students, faculty, and members of Bay Area communities and beyond to invest in creative practices that seek solutions to some of the most pressing problems of our times. The Center for Art and Public Life creates community partnerships based on creative practices that serve the college and the diverse populations of the greater Bay Area, and beyond. The Center focuses on important issues in community development, service learning in arts education, new models of practice in community-based arts, and cultural diversity and youth development through the arts. Signature initiatives in the Center’s history include: the IMPACT Social Entrepreneurship Awards Program, which enabled interdisciplinary teams of students to develop and implement social innovations through their studies in art, design, and writing; ENGAGE at CCA, a community-engagement program that partners students with local organizations, applying critical and creative skills to real-world projects; and CCA CONNECTS, a paid professional development fellowship program enabling undergraduate and graduate students to work at Bay Area mission-driven community organizations for a full academic year.
About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts (CCA) educates students to shape culture and society through the practice and critical study of art, architecture, design, and writing. Benefitting from its San Francisco Bay Area location, the college prepares students for lifelong creative work by cultivating innovation, community engagement, and social and environmental responsibility.
CCA offers a rich curriculum of 23 undergraduate and 11 graduate programs in art, design, architecture, and writing taught by a faculty of expert practitioners. Attracting promising students from across the nation and around the world, CCA is among the 25 most diverse colleges in the U.S. Last year, U.S. News & World Report ranked CCA as one of the top 10 graduate schools for fine arts in the country.
Graduates are highly sought after by companies such as Pixar/Disney, Apple, Intel, Facebook, Gensler, Google, IDEO, Autodesk, Mattel, and Nike, and many have launched their own successful businesses. Alumni and faculty are often recognized with the highest honors in their fields, including Academy Awards, AIGA Medals, Fulbright Scholarships, Guggenheim Fellowships, MacArthur Fellowships, National Medal of Arts, and the Rome Prize, among others.
CCA is creating a new, expanded college campus at its current site in San Francisco, spearheaded by the architectural firm Studio Gang. The new campus design will be a model of sustainable construction and practice; will unite the college’s programs in art, crafts, design, architecture, and writing in one location to create new adjacencies and interactions; and will provide more student housing than ever before.