Lisa Guerrero

Lisa Guerrero, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusive Excellence
Professor, School of Languages, Cultures, and Race
laguerre@wsu.edu
(509) 335-5581

Dr. Lisa Guerrero has been an active advocate for equity and social justice since joining WSU in 2004 as faculty in Comparative Ethnic Studies. During her time at WSU she has served in various capacities including graduate director of the program in American Studies and chair of the University Common Requirements committee (UCORE).

Dr. Guerrero joined the Provost’s office in 2020 as the Associate Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusive Excellence providing leadership to academic affairs in implementing WSU’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. In her role as associate vice provost she helped to identify and implement best practices and evidence-based approaches in faculty hiring, tenure and promotion, research support, faculty retention, teaching and mentoring, and curriculum planning, collaborating with faculty and staff systemwide, and coordinating efforts with the Division of Student Affairs, the Office of Compliance and Civil Rights, Institutional Research, campus leadership, and other units.

As the inaugural Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusive Excellence for WSU Pullman, she draws on the work she began in her associate vice provost’s role and will continually work collaboratively with campus units to develop and implement equity-minded practices and programs in an integrated way that will serve the specific student, faculty, and staff communities that make up the WSU Pullman campus. Additionally, she will continue to lead two systemwide programs: the Cluster Hire Initiative in Racism and Social Inequality in the Americas and the Mentoring Innovations Initiative.

Guerrero earned her bachelor’s degree from University of California, Santa Barbara, with a double major in Black Studies and English, and holds a Ph.D. in Literature, with a particular focus on 20^th century African American literature, from University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters on African American literature, Black masculinity, and race and popular culture, and the book Crazy Funny: Popular Black Satire and the Method of Madness (Routledge, 2019).