Sharnnia Artis

Sharnnia Artis, Ph.D. serves as Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer at George Mason University, a position she accepted in 2021. Artis plans, guides, and advises Mason leadership on diversity, equity, inclusion, and affirmative action matters and anti-racism activities and works to enhance and embed these values into all aspects of university operations.

Artis is a University Affiliate Faculty in the College of Engineering and Computing with research and teaching interests centered on the use of socio-technical systems to improve STEM diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. Her research focuses on the resiliency of students from underrepresented groups in STEM.

Artis previously served as Assistant Dean of Access and Inclusion in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences and the Henry Samueli School of Engineering, both at the University of California, Irvine. She created and sustained student success programs for undergraduate students from various underrepresented groups and established outreach programs for high school and community college students, among other initiatives. Artis secured a $5 million endowment to sustain and expand existing infrastructure to support diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Artis is the co-founder of The Niela Project, a research project funded by the National Science Foundation, designed to increase the understanding of the experiences of Black doctoral women and how those experiences impact their academic persistence and overall well-being in computing and engineering. In addition, she has published over 50 refereed manuscripts in technical journals, book chapters and conference proceedings.

A native of Chesapeake, Virginia, Artis earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in Industrial Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech. She loves spending time with her partner and daughter traveling, enjoying sports, and trying new foods.