Message from the Associate Dean

Dr. Charles Lu currently serves as the Associate Dean of Diversity & Inclusion at the Johns Hopkins University. Prior to arriving at Johns Hopkins, he was Director of the Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services (OASIS) at the University of California, San Diego and the Director of the Gateway Scholars Program at The University of Texas at Austin, where he led cross-functional efforts in student success, strategic initiatives, organizational change, and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Dr. Lu has been a clinical professor, teaching both graduate and undergraduate-level courses on organizational theory, learning assessment, racial equity issues in higher education, and qualitative research methods. A published author, Dr. Lu’s research on identity development, student success, and diversity in higher education has been highlighted in popular media, book chapters, and peer-reviewed academic journals, including Inside Higher Ed, Journal of College Student Development (JCSD), Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice (JSARP), Journal Committed to Social Change on Race & Ethnicity (JCSCORE), International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology (IJEMST), Journal of Hispanics in Higher Education (JHHE), and the Journal of African American Males in Education (JAAME).

Committed to how research and scholarship connect through praxis, Dr. Lu is currently on the editorial board for NASPA’s Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice (JSARP) and NCORE’s Journal Committed to Social Change on Race & Ethnicity (JCSCORE), and he was also a guest editor for a special issue on Latinx students at Minority-Serving Institutions with the Association of Mexican Americans in Education (AMAE).

Over the years, Dr. Lu has served as an educational researcher, consultant, school director, academic coach, middle school science teacher, and was the recipient of the Toyota International Teacher of the Year award, where he created a virtual curriculum on environmental sustainability in the Galápagos Islands. He is a proud alumnus of several notable programs, including the U.S. State Department’s Fulbright Program, Education Pioneers, and Teach for America. Dr. Lu received his Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration and B.S. in Psychology from The University of Texas at Austin, and his M.A. in Secondary Science Education from Loyola Marymount University.