Vice President for Equity and Inclusion

Karl Reid was appointed vice president for equity and inclusion in March 2024, following three years as vice provost and chief inclusion officer at Northeastern University. He previously served as the executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers and as senior vice president for research, innovation, and member college engagement for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), where he oversaw new program development, research, and capacity building for the organization’s 37 historically black colleges and universities.

Before his time at UNCF, Reid worked in positions of progressive responsibility to increase diversity at MIT, which he left in 2008 as associate dean of undergraduate education and director of the Office of Minority Education. While working at MIT as director of engineering outreach programs, he earned his doctor of education degree at Harvard University. His dissertation explored the interrelationship of race, identity, and academic achievement for African American males in college. He is the author of “Working Smarter, Not Just Harder: Three Sensible Strategies for Succeeding in College…and Life.”

Reid was born in the Bronx, New York, and grew up in Roosevelt, New York, a mostly working-class, African-American community on Long Island. The high value his parents placed on education, and his admission to a well-resourced, magnet high school near Roosevelt, put him on a track to follow his older brother to MIT, where he earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in materials science and engineering and was a Tau Beta Pi Scholar. After graduating from MIT, he worked in the computer industry for 12 years in product management, marketing, sales, and consulting.

Reid sits on the National Council for Inclusive Innovation at the US Patent and Trademark Office; the Advisory Board of the American Council of Engineering Companies Research Institute; and the Committee on Advancing Anti-racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations and the Board on Behavior, Social, and Sensory Sciences at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He also serves on the boards of Saga Education, the Peake Fellowship Program, and E4USA, a national initiative to introduce engineering curricula in high schools. Reid serves on the Dean’s Council of the University of Michigan College of Engineering, and holds memberships in the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education and the Society for Diversity, and is a lifetime member of the National Society of Black Engineers.