VCU news

By Pamela DiSalvo Lepley
Division of University Relations

Aashir Nasim, Ph.D., a respected scholar and academic administrator, has been named the vice president for inclusive excellence at Virginia Commonwealth University, effective April 2.

Nasim currently serves as interim senior vice provost for faculty affairs and director of the Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry & Innovation (iCubed) at VCU. In his new position, Nasim will lead the Division for Inclusive Excellence and implement a newly adopted Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Action Plan designed to fulfill VCU’s vision of becoming a model university for inclusivity.

“Aashir is a respected scholar who is admired around the nation and who brings an important lens of diversity and inclusion to his work and to our university community,” said VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. “He is a thoughtful and passionate leader who embodies VCU’s mission of tackling difficult problems to serve the public good. I have valued his leadership over the past decade and look forward to working closely with him as he advances our commitments to diversity and inclusion everywhere and ensures that VCU will always be a place where all people can succeed.”

As senior vice provost, Nasim has served as chief administrator for the Office of Faculty Affairs and led faculty development and success initiatives on the university’s academic, medical and international campuses. In his position with iCubed, he has been responsible for new transdisciplinary academic and research programs that have included more than 50 faculty and postdoctoral researchers from across the university. Nasim will continue as director of iCubed.

VCU is at its best when its value philosophy of diversity and inclusion informs its value practices related to excellence and success.

“VCU is at its best when its value philosophy of diversity and inclusion informs its value practices related to excellence and success,” Nasim said. “We are positioned to be a model in higher education for translating this institutional commitment into national prominence in how we educate our students and how we improve the health of our communities. As our next vice president for inclusive excellence, I look forward to engaging our university community to make this happen, sooner rather than later.”

Nasim earned his Ph.D. in psychology from Howard University. He arrived at VCU in 2008 as an associate professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Psychology and the Department of African American Studies in the College of Humanities and Sciences. He was promoted to professor in 2017. His administrative appointments have included tenures as chair of the Department of African American Studies and as a special assistant to the provost.

Nasim is a National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities Scholar and a VCU Massey Cancer Center Research Program member. His research has focused on topics involving tobacco and other drug behaviors, sexual risk behaviors, and culture, identity and behavior. Nasim began his academic career in 2001 as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at James Madison University.