It's an Honor 

University at Albany President Havidán Rodríguez.

ALBANY, N.Y. (Sept. 21, 2017) – University at Albany President Havidán Rodríguez is being honored today by the National Diversity Council (NDC) after being named to its list of the top 15 Latino leaders in the country.

The President is in San Antonio, Texas, to accept the award during the annual National Latino Leadership Conference luncheon honoring the 2017 Top Latino Leaders in recognition of their career success and efforts in paving the way for future Latino advancement.

“The National Diversity Council has done terrific work to ensure that diversity is at the center of achieving excellence and equity in our institutions and our communities,” Rodríguez said. “This is truly a collective effort, and it is an honor to stand with my colleagues from across the nation as we work toward our shared vision for the future.”

Rodríguez, who began his tenure at UAlbany last week, brings 25 years of experience as a leader in higher education.

He was the founding provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) and a respected scholar who studies the socioeconomic impacts of disasters and the economic well-being of minority populations in the United States and Puerto Rico. He is also a strong advocate for involving undergraduates in research.

Rodríguez was instrumental in creating UTRGV, a new public research university, and building the university’s new medical school from the ground up. UTRGV opened in 2015 and was formed by combining The University of Texas at Brownsville and The University of Texas Pan-American, where he was interim president, provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Prior to his leadership positions in Texas, Rodríguez spent seven years at the University of Delaware, as deputy provost, vice provost for academic affairs and international programs, and professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. He was also a core faculty member and director of the university’s Disaster Research Center, the first social science research center in the world devoted to the study of disasters.

The National Diversity Council is the first non-profit organization to bring together the private, public and non-profit sectors to discuss the many dimensions and benefits of a multicultural environment.

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