Guest Profile
Dr. Ame Lambert
Dr. Ame Lambert serves as the Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer at Roger Williams University where she leads the embedding of equity into all university operations and also supports the thriving of minoritized students and employees. The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Division includes Multicultural Student Initiatives, Queer and Trans Student Initiatives and International Student and Scholar Initiatives. Lambert’s aim is to close the gap between potential and thriving and help individuals and organizations BE-COME. Evaluation data from initiatives that have been launched by division members during her tenure show an impact on 1st year minoritized student retention, academic success and climate; an increase in faculty and staff of color hires, as well as the launching and empowerment of a successful women’s employee initiative and pro equity policies and practices.
Lambert joined RWU in 2017 after working for more than a decade in diversity and inclusion leadership positions in higher education. Before RWU, Lambert served at Champlain College for 7 years where she was the inaugural chief diversity officer, and before that, senior director of institutional diversity. At Champlain, Lambert led the process for creating and implementing a strategic plan, which had measurable results in the areas of student retention and success, employee access and success and policies and practices that drove equity.
Lambert designed, and hosts, the institute for new chief diversity officers at the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education annual conference. Her interdisciplinary lens helps her integrate the best of disparate disciplines such as organization development, neuroscience, education and intercultural communication in the creation of complex responses to complex human challenges. As a bi-cultural immigrant black woman, Lambert believes the answer is often and/and rather than either/or.
A strong introvert, Lambert loves nothing better than a long snuggle with her spirited and smart young daughter who she wishes she could spend more time with.
