Donald Outing, Ph.D. Bio
Lehigh University

Dr. Donald A. Outing, Ph.D., is Lehigh University’s first Vice President for Equity and
Community. In this role, he leads institutional efforts to advance its work on diversity,
equity and inclusion. Dr. Outing reports directly to the Lehigh President and is the senior
administrator responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive plan to
enhance and continue to build on the University’s efforts. Prior to his appointment at Lehigh, Dr. Outing served as the Chief Diversity Officer at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) at West Point. In that role, he served as the academy’s senior leader in coordinating efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive environment and developed and implemented USMA’s first diversity and inclusion strategic plan.Before serving as West Point’s Chief Diversity Officer, Dr. Outing was an Academy and Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and the founding director for the Center for Leadership and Diversity in STEM at West Point. In that role, he conceived and implemented an innovative STEM outreach strategy directed at middle school students that impacted more than 10,000 students nationwide.

Dr. Outing is a certified diversity and equal opportunity practitioner having completed the Department of Defense (DoD) Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) in 2015, and the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education’s inaugural Standards of Professional Practice Institute in 2017. Dr. Outing has more than 34 years of distinguished federal service, having served his nation as a Navy noncommissioned officer, an Army officer, and a DoD civil servant.