Mark Brimhall Vargas, deputy chief diversity officer for the University of Maryland Diversity Department.
After two decades at the University of Maryland, Deputy Chief Diversity Officer Mark Brimhall-Vargas has taken another position, and campus LGBT advocates said his absence will be difficult to fill.
Thursday marks his last day here. Brimhall-Vargas is moving to Tufts University, where he will serve as chief diversity officer and associate provost.
“Mark has such a long and deep impact on diversity inclusion work on campus,” said Nick Sakurai, the LGBT Equity Center associate director at this university. “We have very few senior-level openly LGBT employees on campus. … He has held a unique perspective as being a LGBT person of color for the community.”
Brimhall-Vargas is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and joined the Office of Diversity & Inclusion — then called the Office of Human Relations Programs — as an associate director in 1997 and completed his doctorate in educational policy and leadership at this university in 2011.
Brimhall-Vargas started out creating training programs and workshops, later moving onto supervising dialogue groups. In his role as deputy chief, he has worked with Chief Diversity Officer Kumea Shorter-Gooden on grant applications and a variety of assessments and projects, including diversity assessment and engagement.
He also helped found the Latina/o Faculty & Staff Association.
“Over time, I have found the campus has grown really significantly,” Brimhall-Vargas said. “The work of diversity used to just exist in a few offices — and they still exist and do great work — but now diversity has spread to many other offices across campus.”
He added that the campus should be proud of its diversity progress.
Nana Brantuo, a graduate student studying minority and urban education, works in the diversity office and said it will be tough to replace Brimhall-Vargas.
“I’m happy for Mark, but it was a shock for me for him to be leaving. He was a huge part of the community and this office,” she said. “There’s going to be this hole because he’s such a progressive person. He is very concerned about the needs of all people.”
At Brimhall-Vargas’ farewell reception March 4, Sakurai said the room was packed with friends and colleagues from the many different communities and offices Brimhall-Vargas has worked with.
“Some people commented at the farewell party that he is just really connected to all kinds of people on campus and really recognizes and understands not what’s just going on for students, administration and faculty, but also the staff,” Sakurai said.
Starmanda Duker, a junior government and politics major, said she will miss interacting with Brimhall-Vargas during her internship with the office. His unique personality brought something special to the community, she said.
“I’m sad but I am very happy for him,” Duker said.
Brimhall-Vargas said his departure is bittersweet, as he will have to leave some of his close friends and colleagues.
“I found that the people at UMD really care about their experience they had here,” he said. “When people build relationships here, things can get moving.”
