Rochelle D. Smith is the Vice President of Diversity and Innovative Community Engagement (DICE) at Saint Louis University (SLU). With over 25 years of experience in higher education, she is a seasoned leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Prior to joining SLU in 2022, Smith served as the inaugural Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion and Associate Chief Diversity Officer at the Yale School of Medicine, where she co-administered the Biological and Biomedical Science Diversity and Inclusion Collective for graduate students and co-chaired the ground-breaking Intersections Science Fellows Symposium-a new way to identify diverse faculty in STEM. Before her tenure at Yale, she spent over two decades at Washington University in St. Louis, founding the Diversity Pipeline Consortium for STEM and co-designing retention programs for faculty from historically underrepresented backgrounds.

At SLU, Smith leads efforts such as the Belonging at SLU initiative and the Gateway Faculty Network which fosters cultural exchange among students and faculty within campus and in the community. Her academic credentials include a Master of Science in health behavior research from Washington University School of Medicine, a bachelor's degree in psychology from Chicago State University, and executive leadership certification from The Wharton School from University of Pennsylvania. Smith's leadership has been instrumental in SLU receiving the 2024 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from Insight Into Diversity magazine. Her work continues to enhance SLU's commitment to fostering a diverse and inclusive academic community.