Elizabeth F. Ortiz, former director of Affirmative Action, Diversity and Employee Relations at Northern Illinois University (NIU), has been named Senior Executive for Institutional Diversity at DePaul University.

Ortiz brings to DePaul 15 years of experience in the field of higher education and a track record in the area of diversity. Prior to her position at NIU, she spent 10 years at Chicago State University as director of the office for Hispanic Programs, university retention facilitator and academic support counselor. She spent a year at the City Colleges of Chicago as an Adult Learning Skills Program coordinator and began her career in higher education as an admission counselor and later program and recruitment counselor at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, Ind., where she earned her bachelor’s degree.

As diversity officer at DePaul, Ortiz reports to the president of the university, and is responsible for building alliances with various university constituencies to maximize the university’s potential as a truly diverse community of faculty, students and staff. Her functions include: performing an annual audit to assess DePaul’s diversity initiatives and programs, including the Affirmative Action Plan; and assisting the president in building diversity relationships with Chicago corporations, civil, neighborhood and religious communities.

Ortiz holds a master’s of science degree in adult continuing education from NIU and is a doctoral candidate in education at NIU.

“Each individual who has held this position has introduced a distinctive set of skills that have moved us closer to our goal of welcoming a wide range of people into the university with dignity and equality,” said the Rev. John P. Minogue, C.M., president of DePaul. “Liz continues that tradition. I am very impressed with her connections to the community and her ability to connect people to the communities. She has a deep spirituality about her work and is committed to our mission.”“DePaul is deeply committed to making diversity a reality,” said Ortiz. “Diversity is a part of DePaul’s history and legacy as an institution. This is an ideal that I deeply believe in, and will use my expertise and skills in this area to work to make the ideal a reality.”

DePaul is the largest Catholic university in the United States and the largest private university in Chicago. The university enrolls a richly diverse population of more than 23,200 students in nine colleges and schools. DePaul offers a wide range of academic and professional programs on eight campuses in the Chicago area.