Dr. Letizia Gambrell-Boone joins Salve Regina community as VP for student affairs
Dr. Letizia Gambrell-Boone has joined the Salve Regina campus community this week to begin her duties as the University’s new vice president for student affairs. She comes to Salve Regina with more than 25 years of leadership experience and a passion for fostering student achievement, engagement and success.
Most recently, Dr. Gambrell-Boone served as the director of research initiatives and public hearings at the Equal Employment Practices Commission in New York. In this role, she led the development, assessment and evaluation of sexual harassment prevention programs, as well as managed projects related to the creation of equitable opportunities for underrepresented minorities and workforce planning.
Prior to that, Dr. Gambrell-Boone was vice president for student success and engagement at Virginia State University, where she helped create a vision for involvement that centered on several main components. One of those was honoring each student’s strengths, and another was ensuring that the university served as a brave and safe container for students to explore and grow their values and core competencies through civic engagement.
“I am excited to be joining a team at Salve Regina that values the beliefs of others and challenges its community to seek wisdom and promote universal justice,” Dr. Gambrell-Boone said. “This is the kind of environment in which my deeply ingrained core value of fostering a sense of belonging will thrive.”
A first-generation college graduate, Dr. Gambrell-Boone said she understands the critical role of the University in providing a supportive environment for students to begin their educational experience with an end goal in mind, such as a career path. That experience has helped to shape her leadership approach in higher education, providing invaluable insight into how to create an environment conducive to academic success for all students.
Dr. Gambrell-Boone is the former director of the assessment center, and executive assistant to the president and chair of the Department of Education at Hampton University in Virginia; has served as special assistant to the president at Ramapo College of New Jersey; and held the position of deputy to the university dean for recruitment and diversity at The City University of New York. She was also the program manager for President George W. Bush’s African Textbook Initiative.
“I am committed to transforming educational communities by establishing a culture of belonging, equity and inclusive excellence as core values that are inextricably connected to the institution’s mission,” Dr. Gambrell-Boone said. “I’m especially excited about the opportunity to act as an advocate, thought partner and consultant as we develop and execute a vision for the next era of Salve Regina.”
Dr. Gambrell-Boone has her doctor of education degree from The George Washington University. From Hampton University, she received both her master’s degree in counseling with a concentration in college student development and her bachelor’s degree in marketing.
