Rice Named To Red Cross Diversity Council

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Donna S. Rice, Ph.D., associate vice president for student affairs at UB, has been appointed to a one-year term on the 12-member National Diversity Advisory Council of the American Red Cross.

Widely recognized in educational circles for her work aimed at understanding and promoting cultural diversity, Rice has been involved with the local chapter of the Red Cross since 1993.

The council advises the Red Cross Board of Governor's Human Resources Committee on ways to achieve greater diversity in services, recipients and both the paid and volunteer workforce.

A former director of UB's Educational Opportunity Center, Rice has held numerous teaching and administrative positions at the university since 1972.

For more than 15 years, she worked with the university's English Language Institute. In 1981, she was named director-in-residence for UB's English Language Training Center in Beijing, becoming the first African American to teach English in the Chinese capital.

She is serving a second term on the American Association of University Administrators' board of directors.

Rice was coordinator of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators' mentoring network and has held numerous appointments in the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs and organizations for teachers of English as a second language.

Locally, she serves on the board of directors for the King Urban Life Center and the Red Cross New York Penn Region and has been active in community programs, including Headstart, William-Emslie YMCA, Leadership Buffalo and Delta Sigma Theta.

Rice received bachelor's and master's degrees in linguistics and a doctorate in communication, all from UB.

A member of UB's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, she is named in "Who's Who of American Women" and "Who's Who in International Education."

Rice lives in Buffalo.