Rosemary E. Kilkenny made her foray into the diversity arena more than three decades ago.
Troubled at the time by the dearth of Black graduate students in her class at Kent State University, Kilkenny complained to the dean of graduate studies about the lack of diversity but was later challenged to develop a program of her own aimed at increasing Black enrollment.
She accepted the challenge, and her strategy for increasing minority enrollment by ensuring Black students had the financial and mentoring support they needed was immediately hailed as a success and Kilkenny was later appointed assistant dean for graduate recruitment. She went on to serve in various positions at Kent State University and the State University of New York at Albany before arriving in 1980 at the nation’s oldest Jesuit university, where she assumed the role of special assistant for affirmative action programs.
Today, Kilkenny is Georgetown University’s vice president for institutional diversity and equity, a position that was created for her in 2006, and she has become the university’s most visible cheerleader for diversity and inclusion.
Under Kilkenny’s leadership, Georgetown — which is largely viewed as conservative and steeped in tradition — has been aggressive in launching several campuswide initiatives aimed at making the campus more welcoming of others. The latest effort at promoting change was unveiled last spring and is a comprehensive attempt by the university to focus on diversity in recruitment and outreach, student life and curriculum.
“I am very committed to issues of social justice and equity,” says Kilkenny, who received her law degree from Georgetown. “Sometimes this is very frustrating work. You take major steps forward and then you take some steps backward.”
Those backward steps include an incident in 2007 in which several Georgetown students were targets of anti-gay attacks. The university responded by opening a resource center for gay students and hiring a full-time director to run it. The center plans events on campus such as Coming Out Week and Lavender Graduation, a ceremony held for gay students.
