Sumun Pendakur, Associate Dean for Institutional Diversity at Harvey Mudd College.
Dr. Sumun L. Pendakur is the associate dean for institutional diversity at Harvey Mudd College. In her role, Dean Sumi leads the Office of Institutional Diversity, a multifaceted social justice education center. She and her team are responsible for campus-based cross-cultural educational programming. She also co-directs the Summer Institute, an academic affairs and student affairs collaborative four-week summer immersion program (academic exposure and student development) for targeted admitted students. In addition, she serves as the chief diversity officer, partnering with academic affairs to focus on campus-wide efforts related to access, equity, campus climate and inclusion. In her role, she advises faculty search teams on embedding equity and diversity in all aspects of the search/selection process. She also provides diversity trainings for a variety of units and departments. In 2007, Dean Sumi won the USC LGBT Service Award for Outstanding Dedication and Commitment. In 2010, Sumi won the NASPA Gold Excellence Award in the Multicultural and Inclusion category for the creation of Project ReMiX. In 2011, she won the USC Remarkable Women Award and the USC Rossier School of Education Dissertation of the Year Award. Her dissertation was titled “The Search for Transformative Agents: The Counter-Institutional Positioning of Faculty and Staff at an Elite University.”
In 2014, Sumi was recognized with the Outstanding Mid-Level Professional Award by the NASPA Asian Pacific Islander Knowledge Community.
