Mary Ontiveros, vice president of diversity, is retiring from Colorado State University after 45 years of working on campus. Ontiveros will be marking her final day with CSU Dec. 31, 2020.

Ontiveros, an alumna of CSU, served in a variety of leadership positions at the university prior to her current role, including executive director of admissions, associate vice president in the Division of Enrollment and Access, and as a faculty member in the School of Education. She was selected as the university’s first vice president for diversity in 2010 and has helped the office grow from a startup effort to the comprehensive training and advocacy unit it is now.

Ontiveros co-founded the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the National Association of Diversity officers in Higher Education and continues to be active at the national level of the organization. She has served on the steering committee of the Colorado Coalition for the Educational Advancement of Latinxes and is an active member of the Community Equity Initiative in Fort Collins.

“Mary Ontiveros is an amazing person with great wisdom, and yet she remains absolutely down-to-earth about her work,” said CSU President Joyce McConnell. “She has held us all to an incredibly high standard when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion, both here at CSU and far more broadly, and yet she does so without any fanfare. This university community has been incredibly lucky to have Mary for so many years, and I’m glad we will have the opportunity to celebrate her before she retires.”