Kimberly Weatherly (She/Her/Hers)

Kimberly L. Weatherly joined Lafayette in 2024 as the Executive Director of Intercultural Development. Reporting directly to the Vice President of Inclusion, Weatherly has an extensive history of championing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) efforts across various educational settings. She leads a newly-created department that is dedicated to fostering inclusion in all aspects of the College. Her professional journey is defined by a deep commitment to advocating for and uplifting historically underrepresented groups within academic environments.

In this new capacity, Weatherly is at the forefront of developing and executing DE&I strategies that benefit our students, faculty, and staff. She provides critical guidance to institutional leaders on strategic planning and complex issues, including restorative justice. In addition, she leads a skilled OID team comprised of an associate director, two assistant directors, and student staff. Her role also involves data analysis and assessment to identify DE&I disparities, optimizing departmental staffing, and evaluating the effectiveness of programs.

Weatherly’s professional background spans work at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), state universities, Catholic Lasallian institutions, fine and performing arts schools, and public ivy league universities. Throughout her career, she has achieved numerous milestones, such as expanding the activities and resources within various centers, which in turn secured additional funding and resources. She also initiated collaborations between DE&I and admissions to recruit African-American students, thereby cultivating robust Black communities at multiple campuses. Weatherly has been instrumental in launching initiatives to support LGBTQ+, African American, Latinx, and APIM students, including initiating student leadership programs, summer transition from high school to college, transgender resources, holistic mental health resources focusing on Black and Brown mental health, Black male initiatives, and social justice programming.

Beyond these achievements, Weatherly has been a pivotal contributor to organizations’ strategic planning, providing insights into how institutional strategies affect student affairs. Her dedication to student success is evident in the consistently high graduation rates—93%—she has maintained in several summer programs designed to assist underrepresented students before their freshman year, along with chairing diversity and inclusion committees and serving on university-wide strategic planning committees.