Having lived, studied, and taught abroad, Heidi Tasa is a global-minded leader.
Vincennes University announced Tasa is its first Dean of Global Diversity and Inclusion. She began her new post on Jan. 3, 2023.
According to VU Provost and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council Co-Chair Dr. Laura Treanor, “Vincennes University has long been committed to diversity and inclusion. We are excited to have Heidi serve in this important role that ensures Vincennes University continues to educate and offer extraordinary opportunities to a diverse, multicultural community of students, faculty, and staff.â€
Before her current position, Tasa designed and delivered an innovative professional development certification in Inclusive Teaching. She has served on VU’s DEI Council and Faculty Senate in addition to numerous University and English Department committees.
“The Student Affairs team is excited to have Heidi serve as the Dean of Global Diversity,†Assistant Provost for Student Affairs Whitney Daugherty said. “Heidi has done great work in the English department over the last 10 years. She has been innovative in her time as faculty by infusing diversity into her courses and interactions with students, faculty, and staff. We believe Heidi will continue to bring opportunities, education, and a lot of fun to our diversity efforts.â€
Tasa has taught French and English for two decades. She was promoted to a full-tenured professor of English in 2022. She has served as the Director of VU’s Honors Program and was the Recruitment/Retention Liaison for the College of Humanities from 2016 to 2022.
Before joining VU in 2013, Tasa was an English teacher for the North Knox (Indiana) School Corporation and a public school French teacher in the Boston metropolitan area. Tasa studied abroad and taught for several years in France.
Tasa earned a bachelor’s degree in French from Indiana University. She went on to earn a master’s degree in English Education from Salem State University. Tasa is currently a Doctor of Education candidate at the University of Southern Indiana.
“I have been fortunate enough to study and live abroad as well as in urban and rural communities. I hope to bring these perspectives to my new role to better serve everyone in the VU Community,†Tasa said.
As the Dean of Global Diversity and Inclusion, Tasa will oversee all aspects of management and oversight for global diversity and insight, including interacting with students, faculty, and staff and developing strategy, planning, and coordinating numerous diversity initiatives. She is responsible for the implementation and assessment of activities to maximize student success for first-generation and historically underrepresented student populations and foster a vibrant community of learning and student support.
“We all hold a piece of the diversity, equity, and inclusion puzzle,†Tasa said. “The Center of Global Diversity and Inclusion will ensure that we are meeting each member of the VU Community where they are and helping them get to where they want to be.â€
The American Bison, or the Buffalo, before DeSoto and Columbus entered North America, stormed and roamed the current day US from the far east to the Great Plains.
On a trail called the “Buffalo Trace?” They crossed a ford on the Ohio where Louisville currently sits, and then the Wabash River where Vincennes currently sits. Of course Native Americans set up Villages and Camps in both places to take down Buffalo as they entered and crossed the rivers. Those camps were there for thousands of years. Buffalo were still in Indiana, still not hunted out, in the late 1790’s, but eventually, they would only be found on the Great Plains.
That Native American village at the ford where buffalo crossed the Wabash? When the French took it over, it became Vincennes, Indiana.
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