Dr. Lida Rafia is a social justice educator and equity practitioner, with a fervent commitment to guiding people, teams, and organizations towards cultural transformation through an equity, diversity, and inclusion lens. She was born in Tehran, Iran, and spent her formative years migrating between Iran and the United States. Growing up with a foot in each culture, she gradually reconciled the differences and embraced her identity as an Iranian-American.
With over 15 years of professional experience in higher education leadership, Dr. Rafia has served in various leadership roles in community colleges, where she has been instrumental in leading strategic change. Her areas of expertise include program and curricula design, training and facilitation, executive coaching, strategic planning, and organizational development.
As a Principal Consultant, Dr. Rafia serves as an innovative thought partner, convener, coalition builder and trusted advisor to leaders across health, higher education and business organizations to reenvision their internal policies and procedures to reflect and promote greater equity. Her demonstrated exceptional proficiency in understanding of cultural and business implications relating to psychological safety, core DEI concepts and the ability to convey and inspire persuasive cases for change, serves as a guide to create and implement effective strategies to attract, develop, and retain diverse workforces.
Dr. Rafia’s professional credentials include her previous role as Dean of Student Success and Equity at Grossmont College, where she led the implementation of college-wide equity strategic initiatives, strategic planning, and professional development for faculty, staff, and administrators. In this capacity, she worked collaboratively to build consensus across various constituency groups, fostering an inclusive environment that positively impacted policies, practices, and culture. As a result of these efforts Grossmont College established a framework and strategic direction for diversity, equity and inclusion. Prior to this role, she served as the Multicultural and Retention Director, Adjunct Faculty, and Academic Advisor at Portland Community College.
Dr. Rafia’s academic qualifications include a master’s degree in educational leadership and policy from Portland State University and a Ph.D. in adult and higher educational leadership from Oregon State University.Â