About

Independent consultant committed to building cultural awareness, inclusive learning, and equity frameworks to advance personal, interpersonal, systemic, and structural change.

Edward Pittman, Ed.D.

Edward Pittman is a higher education consultant and senior associate dean of the college, emeritus, at Vassar College where he led campus teams for over three decades. As a dean, he held leadership positions in student affairs, campus life, first-year student programs, professional development as well as inclusion and equity. He is the founding director of Vassar’s ALANA Cultural Center and also facilitated the development of the college’s gender and LGBTQ Centers. In 2018, he developed Vassar’s inaugural professional and talent development initiative to support staff in serving students more effectively.

As a consultant with extensive experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), student services, and higher education leadership, he has presented at many colleges and conferences, including Amherst College, Oberlin College, Dartmouth College, Brandeis University, George Mason University, the University of Arizona, Johns Hopkins University, the State University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz, Skidmore College, the Lehigh Valley Association of Colleges, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and the KIPP Foundation. He also serves on accreditation teams for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Dr. Pittman is a founding board member and past chair of the Consortium on High Achievement and Success (CHAS), the oldest consortium devoted to DEI and institutional transformation at liberal arts colleges and universities. He retired from Vassar in 2021.

His articles on advancing inclusion and equity; developing cultural centers; campus climate and institutional history; supporting Black and Latino males; implicit bias education; and sustaining professional development during COVID-19 have appeared in Diverse Issues, the Journal of College Student Development, and Inside Higher Ed. His work has also gained recognition on NPR and in a Chronicle of Higher Education webinar. As an adjunct professor, he has taught undergraduate courses in sociology, intergroup dialogue, and race relations.

Dr. Pittman earned his doctorate in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master’s in Multicultural Education from SUNY New Paltz, his A.B. in Sociology from Vassar College, and an Associate in Arts from Dutchess Community College.

A long-time community and public servant, he is a Poughkeepsie native and past president of the Poughkeepsie City School District Board of Education. Dr. Pittman remains involved as a trustee of the Poughkeepsie Public Schools Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to closing opportunity gaps. He serves on the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education Advisory Board for the doctorate program in Higher Education Management.