Feb. 7, 2003

CONTACT: Gordon Ovenshine (724) 738-4854;  e-mail: gordon.ovenshine@sru.edu

SRU HIRES ASSISTANT VP FOR HUMAN RESOURCES AND DIVERSITY —

DR. RENAY SCALES BRINGS EXPERTISE IN FACULTY/MANAGER RECRUITMENT

           SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Dr. Renay Scales, whose employee and campuswide training programs at Kutztown University won a “best practice” award from the U.S. Office for Civil Rights, has been hired as Slippery Rock University’s assistant vice president for human resources and diversity.

           She comes to The Rock with more than 20 years of human resource management experience in higher education, healthcare and corporate America. Her breadth of expertise includes employment law, collective bargaining and recruitment and hiring of diverse faculty and managers.

           Scales’ leadership was a direct factor in a 500 percent increase in the diversity of the academic and managerial  workforce at Kutztown and in the increase of the overall level of qualifications of incoming employees.

            “My vision is to enhance the sense of community and opportunities to attract more women and people of color to Slippery Rock University,” she says. “We have it in the core of our mission statement. We just have to raise it up in bold letters. And we need to celebrate our successes.”

           Scales utilizes a collaborative style of management to gather as much input as possible to make effective decisions. She says human resources and diversity are “symbiotic.”

           Scales, who describes herself as task-oriented, has an 11-year history with the National Coalition Institute, a Washington, D.C.,-based diversity organization that serves the U.S. and several foreign countries. She has been a consultant to numerous organizations across the country, providing advice on diversity, cross-cultural communication, conflict resolution and hiring practices.

           Since 1997, Scales had been Kutztown’s director of social equity. She coordinated diversity workforce training, assisted departments with the recruitment of diverse, tenure-track faculty and managers and mediated disputes.

           From 1992 to 1996, she was assistant vice president at the University of North Texas. From 1985 to 1992, she was division manager of human resources at Houston Lighting and Power. She also served as assistant director of personnel at the University of Texas Cancer Center from 1980 to 1985.

           She has a doctorate in higher education/human resource management, University of North Texas; master of arts in human resources, University of Houston-Clear Lake City; and a bachelor of science in speech pathology, University of Houston.