Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, Ph.D.

 

Dr. Mark Overmyer-Velázquez, UConn Hartford Dean and Chief Administrative Officer, began as the inaugural leader of the campus upon its August 2017 move to and ribbon cutting in the City of Hartford anchored by the historic beauty and grandeur of The Hartford Times portico and situated behind City Hall and The Wadsworth Atheneum. He oversees a vibrant campus with 3,600 students and 400 faculty and staff. A federally designated Minority Serving Institution (AANAPISI, emerging HSI), UConn Hartford students take classes in 36 different departments, and MA, PhD, and certificate studies in five different disciplines. Liberal arts and professional academic offerings span across seven schools and colleges with strengths in the schools of business, social work, and public policy.

During his tenure, UConn Hartford has grown its enrollment, research enterprise, and equity and inclusion efforts and outcomes. Dr. Overmyer-Velázquez has stewarded the campus’s first development efforts; launched the interdisciplinary and cross-school Research on Resilient Cities, Racism, and Equity initiative; and elevated the presence, reputation, and real-world impact of the R1 university’s campus in the state capital.

His commitment to student success has led to the development of the Academic Achievement Center (AAC), the Office of Advocacy & Community Engagement (OACE), and the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Innovation Hub (TRHT). The AAC incorporates innovative and data informed practices to coach, mentor, and train students, faculty, and staff and provides them with holistic academic support. Through collaborative programming with university and city partners, the OACE has developed a community-based dialog series, voter registration projects, a food pantry, and large-scale clothing and food drives for city residents experiencing homelessness. The TRHT Initiative facilitates UConn Hartford’s efforts to dismantle racism by providing a framework for the University’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice efforts.

A strong believer in building partnerships throughout the region and nationally, Dr. Overmyer-Velázquez serves as Co-chair of the Hartford Consortium for Higher Education Board of Directors; Vice Chair of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, and a member of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities; he is also on the Board of Directors of the MetroHartford Alliance, Hartford Public Library, and the Hartford Stage.

He taught History and Latinx Studies at Pomona College, Wesleyan University, and UConn Storrs for 15 years and was the founding Director of UConn’s El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean & Latin American Studies. His publications include Beyond la Frontera: The History of Mexico-U.S. Migration (Oxford, 2011), Global Latin(o) Americanos: Transoceanic Diasporas and Regional Migrations (Oxford, 2017), Visions of the Emerald City: Modernity, Tradition and the Formation of Porfirian Oaxaca, Mexico (Duke, 2006; Spanish translation 2010), and the two volume, Latino America: State by State (Greenwood, 2008). He has been a Fulbright scholar, the Peggy Rockefeller Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, visiting lecturer at universities in Mexico, Chile, and China, and research professor at the School of Human Rights at the University of Jordan, Amman. Dr. Overmyer-Velázquez holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of British Columbia and earned both master’s and doctoral degrees in History from Yale University.

The first Latinx elected official in West Hartford, he served as member and Chair of the Board of Education (2011-2017). His dedication to increasing access and equity in higher education has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Vision Award in Social Justice from the Charter Oak Cultural Center; the Beyond Academics Award from the Urban League of Greater Hartford; and the Educational Leadership and Community Engagement Award from Real Art Ways. He keeps his commitment to the arts by playing keyboard in the UConn faculty band, Blues without Borders.