Conklin named Yale’s new Title IX Coordinator

Elizabeth Conklin, associate vice president for equity, accessibility, and belonging, has been named the new University Title IX Coordinator, effective Jan. 1, Yale leaders announced this week.

Conklin will assume the role from Dr. Stephanie Spangler, who has served as coordinator for more than a decade. Assistant Provost Jason Killheffer, senior deputy Title IX coordinator since 2011, will continue to support Yale’s Title IX programs under Conklin’s direction while also working with Spangler on academic integrity matters.

The Title IX coordinator leads the program that administers policies, procedures, and resources to address and prevent sex- and gender-based discrimination, including sexual misconduct.

“Yale is fully committed to creating and sustaining a university environment free from discrimination and harassment,” Provost Scott Strobel and Secretary and Vice President for University Life Kim Goff Crews wrote Wednesday in a message to the university community. “Dr. Spangler’s leadership in this area — helping us further mutual respect and empowerment throughout our educational, working, and living environments — has been exemplary.

Conklin has worked closely over the last year with Spangler and Killheffer to enhance and harmonize programs to address discrimination and harassment concerns. Her focus at Yale to date has been on the prevention and response to forms of discrimination and harassment other than those that fall under Title IX. In addition to her Title IX responsibilities, Conklin will in her new role tackle issues related to Belonging at Yale, Title VI, antiracism, and support for the discrimination and harassment resource coordinators, accessibility, and the LGBTQ community.

In light of progress made by Conklin and her team in aligning and fortifying programs to address harassment and discrimination of all kinds — including race, national original, religion, and disability — and given Spangler’s ongoing responsibilities in her roles as vice provost for health affairs & academic integrity and the university’s COVID-19 coordinator, Spangler, Strobel, and Crews agreed that the beginning of the new year would be “an optimal time” for leadership transition, the message said.

“It has been an enormous privilege to work with colleagues, whose dedication, skill, and compassion have shaped and sustained our programs and resources to address sex-based discrimination, and to partner with so many members of the Yale community, whose courage and commitment have brought serious and important issues to the fore and paved the way for to making positive and enduring change,” Spangler said. “And it has been a true pleasure to work with Elizabeth Conklin over the past years, in her roles at the University of Connecticut and now at Yale — I am so grateful, and the university is so fortunate, that Elizabeth will take on this extremely important responsibility.”

Prior to joining Yale in 2020, Conklin served for nine years as associate vice president for the University of Connecticut’s Office of Institutional Equity and as its Title IX coordinator and ADA coordinator. She and Spangler co-founded the Connecticut Title IX Coordinator Coalition. Conklin has conducted independent Title IX assessments for three universities and chaired the State of Connecticut’s task force to review the effects of changes to Title IX regulations in 2020.

“It has been my great privilege to work closely with Stephanie, my long-time colleague and collaborator, since I came to Yale last year,” Conklin said. “Stephanie has set the highest standard as Title IX Coordinator, all the more impressive considering her concurrent work on academic integrity, health affairs, and the university’s pandemic response. We will carry the work forward inspired by her leadership and supported by the strong foundation she has established.

Strobel and Crews expressed gratitude to Spangler “for sharing her expertise, for her generous partnership, and for her countless contributions and abiding care for our community.”