Washington State University Expert Named To National Leadership Committee

Elizabeth Chilton, provost and executive vice president as well as chancellor of the WSU Pullman campus, has been selected to serve on the leadership committee of a national project working to address sexual harassment in higher education.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education was established in 2019 in response to the results and recommendations of the academies’ 2018 sexual harassment of women report.

Creating more diverse, inclusive, and respectful environments, addressing the most common form of sexual harassment — gender harassment — increasing transparency, and measuring progress were among more than a dozen recommendations offered in the report.

“Throughout my career, I have supported equity and inclusion for all in higher education and in society at large,” Chilton said. “One of the ways we can do that is to prevent sexual harassment, as well as other forms of harassment, discrimination, and bullying. I look forward to working with the committee towards that goal.”

Since being established, the collaborative has grown to include more than 50 universities, national laboratories and federal agencies. Its work with universities, researchers and other leaders across myriad fields is rooted in several key pillars:

Facilitating and informing action on preventing and addressing harassment
Sharing and elevating evidence-based policies and strategies for reducing and preventing sexual harassment
Advancing research on sexual harassment prevention, as well as gathering and applying research results across institutions
Raising awareness about sexual harassment and its consequences, and motivate action to address and prevent it
Assessing progress in higher education toward reducing and preventing sexual harassment in higher education
The collaborative’s leadership committee is part of the Policy and Global Affairs Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.