Shá Duncan Smith
Vice President for Inclusive Excellence
Previously, Shá has held a variety of progressively responsible leadership roles at Swarthmore College, University of Michigan, and the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center. She has over 18 years of experience developing and implementing strategic plans and initiatives to promote diverse, equitable and inclusive cultures for students, faculty and staff. She has collaborated as a thought, strategy and action partner with higher education institutions, nonprofit organizations and Fortune 500 companies to assess, evaluate and reimagine strategic initiatives, organizational cultures and structures, programs and initiatives, and assessment processes.
Shá’s continued commitment to anchoring diversity, equity and inclusion at the heart of organizational change and culture is demonstrated in her work in developing training and learning modules to build intercultural capacity and critical consciousness within organizations.
Shá is completing her doctorate in higher education management at University of Pennsylvania. She holds both a master’s of social work and a bachelor of arts in sociology from University of Michigan.
She spent her formative years in Michigan and recently moved from the Philadelphia area. Currently, Shá resides in Santa Clara with her partner Tony and four children.
(408) 554-5131 (office)
tssmith@scu.edu
Raymond Plaza, Director
Dr. Raymond V. Plaza
Senor Director, Office for Campus Climate and Belonging
As the Senior Director, Raymond (Ray) is responsible for day-to-day activities that include working closely with the Vice President for Inclusive Excellence and colleagues in the Inclusive Excellence Division. He works closely with the Provost office to design strategies for the recruitment and retention of faculty from underrepresented groups. He also has working relationships with Human Resources (developing initiatives aimed at increasing the diversity and retention of University staff), the Office for Student Life (in partnerships and efforts in working with students) and the Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development (planning for diversity training and leadership initiatives focused on faculty and staff and aimed at building cultural competence and intergroup dialogues). He also coordinates the Safe Space training for faculty and staff, and facilitates the UndocuAlly training as part of his service on the Undocumented Student Working Group. He also works closely with the Title IX and Equal Opportunity officer to implement the University's Equal Opportunity program, and he helps to maintain and fortify the University's data in partnership with Institutional Research.
Prior to Santa Clara, Raymond worked at Bowling Green State University where he served as the Associate Director, Multicultural Affairs, where he was responsible for retention initiatives, Latinx success, and the assessment and management of data. He coordinated the bi-annual climate assessment survey at Bowling Green, chaired the Latino Issues Conference, facilitated Safe Zone workshops, and served as the liaison to the Latino Student Union and Hillel. In addition to those responsibilities, he was active as a liaison between the university and the Bowling Green community in the national Not In Our Town movement. Raymond also spent more than a dozen years at Virginia Tech working in student affairs, multicultural affairs and academic affairs.
Raymond is a Miami native who earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in both English and History from the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he also earned a Master of Arts in Education, Student Personnel in Higher Education. He earned his Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).
Raymond is also active within ACPA College Student Educators International where he has served in multiple leadership roles including Convention Chair for ACPA18 annual convention, Past Chair of the Latinx Network, and one of the two ACPA representatives to the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) from 2020 - 2025. Currently, he is completing his two-year term as as Chair for Public Policy and Governmental Affairs in March 2026, and will be starting as the Vice President-Elect for Strategic Initiatives.
In addition, he is currently the Chair of the AJCU Diversity and Equity Network. Previously, Ray served on the National Advisory Council (NAC) for the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE) from 2019 - 2023, and from 2021 - 2023, served as the Chair of the Human Resources committee of the NAC.
(408) 551-3383 (office)
(408) 551-6074 (fax)
rplaza@scu.edu