Taffye Benson Clayton, Ed.D.

Associate Provost and Vice President for Inclusion & Diversity

Auburn University

Dr. Taffye Benson Clayton is a nationally known executive administrator and inclusive excellence leader in higher education who currently serves as Vice President and Associate Provost at Auburn University providing leadership to strategic graduate STEM priorities and partnerships in the Office of the Provost.  Clayton was recruited to Auburn University as its inaugural Vice President and Associate Provost for Inclusion and Diversity.  In that role, she served as the designated executive administrator for coordinating the University’s diversity and inclusion strategy and the principal advocate and adviser to the President, Provost, and senior University leadership on access, opportunity and inclusive excellence related matters.  Dr. Clayton formerly led the Office of Inclusion and Diversity comprised of the Women’s and Gender Equity subunit, the Cross-Cultural Center for Excellence and Diversity Education and Engagement subunits as well as the Diversity Leadership Roundtable, an institutional body connecting academic and administrative leaders from units across the campus.  Prior to her appointment at Auburn University, she served in similar roles at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Vice Provost and Associate Vice Chancellor) and East Carolina University, (Associate Provost and Special Assistant to the Chancellor).

Dr. Clayton currently chairs the Inclusion Strategists Executive Council of The Conference Board, a global, independent business membership and research organization serving 1,200 public and private corporations.  She is a former Board Member-at-Large and co-Chair of the Membership Committee for the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) and former Executive Committee member of APLU’s Council on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and has served on the Advisory Board of the Equity-Minded Leadership in Higher Education Research Collaboration between the American Council on Education and the University of Southern California’s Pullias Center for Higher Education.  She is the Convener for the SEC VP Peer-to-Peer Network, with representation from senior leaders in access and opportunity, university engagement, EEO and Title IX, military and veteran student and family services, student success and inclusive excellence from universities throughout the Southeastern Athletic Conference (SEC).