Anthony Chavez, VP of Learning Systems & Ag Industries

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Anthony Chavez  brings over 40 years of experience and background upon his re-entry to the diversity, equity, inclusion, and engagement sectors of business and higher education.  Steeped in Mexican American and Navajo family history and culture, Anthony contributes unique perspectives to conversations about our American Experience and the American Experiment.  

Anthony earned a baccalaureate from the University of Notre Dame in the Great Books Program, a classical education in the western traditions of history, science, philosophy, literature, and the Socratic method. He went on to earn occupational degrees in agricultural specialties- production management and agricultural mechanics-from Rend Lake College.  This non-traditional path led to achievements in production agriculture that garnered him an invitation from the faculty to enroll in the Master of Science program in Agricultural Education and Mechanization from the College of Agriculture at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Anthony's breadth of education and experience were a match for emerging institutional developments at Southern in the area of minority student recruitment, retention, and corporate placement. He was the first elected Chicano-Native American president of the Illinois Cooperative Education and Internship Association. 

After southern Illinois, Anthony concentrated his career on multicultural student affairs at the University of Vermont (U of V) behind Rodney Patterson's visionary leadership.  During pivotal years in the University's development, Anthony established himself as a national leader in DEI&E. He went on to assume a leadership role in executing innovative methods and techniques for teaching mandatory courses on race and culture. Over the next four years, Anthony expanded that reach by co-teaching a groundbreaking course on "Race, Class, and Gender" at U of V and Trinity College of Vermont. 

Anthony credits his evolution as an anti-racism advocate and facilitator to his direct service to students and people of color in Vermont. He is grateful for the crucial mentoring he received from core training staff at The Peoples' Institute for Survival and Beyond in New Orleans, Louisiana; Dr. Jim Dunn and Ronald Chisom, Founders of the "Undoing Racism Workshops. And from Lee Mun Wah of Stir Fry Productions in Berkeley, California, as a certified Mindfulness facilitator.