Frances L. Shavers

Chief Diversity Officer and Advisor to the President

Frances L. Shavers, a 1990 University of Notre Dame graduate who previously served in the Office of the President, the Notre Dame Department of Athletics and Alumni Association, serves as Chief Diversity Officer and Advisor to the President.

After earning her bachelor’s degree in sociology, Shavers worked for two years with the Aetna Life and Casualty Co. in Dallas and Buffalo, N.Y. She returned to Notre Dame in January 1992 to serve as director of alumni clubs and student programs in the University’s Alumni Association. Her responsibilities included supervision of the activities and programs of the University’s student-alumni group and serving as liaison between Notre Dame and its network of more than 100 alumni clubs nationwide.

In 1996, Shavers was appointed the first coordinator of the Notre Dame Department of Athletics Life Skills Program (now called Student Athlete Welfare and Development). Under her direction, the program created academic, personal and career support programming for the more than 700 Irish student-athletes, and has since been recognized as a model within intercollegiate athletics.

As manager of the Community Education Academy at the University of Southern California, Shavers was responsible for overseeing a collaboration of the university’s major educational outreach initiatives. She facilitated communication among various programs, developed programming that integrated services, and managed the academy’s strategic planning process.

Shavers began work on her master’s and doctoral degrees in 1998 in the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. She earned her master’s a year later in administration, planning and social policy and completed her doctorate in 2004 in the same field with a concentration in higher education.

A Gates Millennium Scholar at Harvard, Shavers received the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award in 2000 from the American Association of Higher Education (AAHE). She served on numerous committees on admissions, curriculum, and diversity at Harvard and Notre Dame.

Shavers returned to Notre Dame in 2006 when she was appointed as executive assistant to the president and later as chief of staff. As chief of staff and special assistant to the president, Shavers held direct responsibility for coordinating Father Jenkins’ schedule, assisting with his preparation for all presidential events, and directing the flow of correspondence. She also served as the President’s liaison to the athletics department, served on the Faculty Board on Athletics, and assisted the Athletics Committee of the Board of Trustees. In addition, Shavers was the staff liaison to the Social Values and Responsibilities Committee of the Board and served as co-chair of the University Committee on Diversity.

In her current position as chief diversity officer and advisor to the president, Shavers works in Human Resources where she focuses on diversity of the staff, convenes those who head up diversity efforts with students and faculty, and advises Father Jenkins on ways in which the University can continue to make progress in this area.