Interim Associate Vice President for Inclusion & Belonging
Biography
Rafael Angel Zapata (Rafael) joined St. Mary’s in January 2025 as the interim associate vice president for inclusion and belonging, bringing over 25 years of experience in higher education. He was most recently the inaugural chief diversity officer, special assistant to the president for diversity, and associate vice president for academic affairs at Fordham University, where he helped the institution attain historic undergraduate diversity enrollment levels. Other initiatives focused on campus climate, faculty and staff recruitment and retention, strategic grant-making to support inclusive pedagogical practice, and the development an on-going, strategic partnership with The Bronx Book Festival. Prior to Fordham, Rafael served in a similar leadership role at Providence College, where his efforts helped increase diversity among tenure-track faculty by 50%, and he led the establishment of the Center at Moore Hall: a centrally located, multipurpose arts, culture, learning and community space. Rafael has also held administrative roles at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, and New York University.
Beyond college and university campuses, Rafael has worked with various programs and organizations equally dedicated to increasing access and promoting academic excellence among historically underrepresented students, such as the Gates Millennium Scholars Program, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, College Visions (Providence, RI), and The Bronx is Reading. A native New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, Rafael earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Iona College, a Master of Arts in sociology from Arizona State University, and spent three years in the doctoral program in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.