Announcing Sonia Vega-Lopez as Assistant Dean of Inclusive Excellence

Hello CHS faculty and staff,

We are very pleased to announce Sonia Vega-López, PhD, FAHA, as Assistant Dean of Inclusive Excellence for CHS effective November 1, 2023.

We are so fortunate to have Dr. Vega-López in this new leadership role. She has been an invaluable leader for the CHS Council for Inclusive Excellence (CIE), formerly known as the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Council, since its inception, and she will continue to lead the council and its initiatives to develop an inclusive and equitable community going forward. While Dr. Vega-López was already attending college leadership meetings as a representative of the council, the assistant dean position was created to formalize the importance of leadership in this area and ensure that inclusive excellence is a part of every aspect of the college. 

In partnership with senior leadership across CHS, the assistant dean will develop and oversee implementation of an effective strategy to best achieve the college’s mission of solving our community’s most pressing health concerns and creating a more equitable future. We are fortunate to have someone like Dr. Vega-López with the vision, understanding and appreciation for the challenges we face, especially at this time in the world.

Currently a professor in nutrition, Dr. Vega-López came to ASU in 2008 as an assistant professor. Her research centers around studying how diet quality and physical activity affect chronic disease risk in minority and underserved populations; designing and implementing culturally-tailored diet and physical activity interventions for chronic disease reduction among Hispanic families; and assessing the effect of community-based interventions on biomarkers of disease risk. See her full bio and CV here. As assistant dean, she will continue to teach in the nutrition program area.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Vega-López and wishing her well in her new leadership role. I encourage you to reach out to her about new ways you might work together to further our mission.

Deborah L. Helitzer, ScD

Dean and Professor