Akilah Rosado (she/her/ella)

Dr. Akilah Rosado, Ed.D., Vice President for Inclusion and Belonging

Akilah Rosado is a transformational higher education leader with over 15 years of executive experience advancing institutional strategy, equity, and organizational change. She has held senior roles including Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Equity Officer at Relay Graduate School of Education, and Vice President for Governance, Social Justice, Equity, and Inclusion at Bank Street College of Education. Across her career, Dr. Rosado has led large-scale strategic plans, organizational restructuring, and equity-centered culture initiatives that strengthened governance, alignment, and community trust.

Her scholarship explores resistant leadership among Black women diversity executives, examining how lived experience, identity, and activism shape leadership strategies in higher education. Her dissertation, To Pimp a Butterfly: Resistant Leadership - Black Women DEI Leaders at the Intersection of Identity, Activism, and Institutional Critique, advances a framework for understanding the resilience and vision Black women bring to institutional transformation.

A proud Afro-Latina and Brooklyn native, Dr. Rosado grounds her leadership in community, liberation, and systemic change. She brings to Barnard a deep commitment to cultivating belonging, equity, and trust as essential conditions for academic and organizational excellence