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Lydia Kennedy is a 4th generation Tucson native, and a graduate of the University of Arizona with a Bachelor’s in Psychology and Northern Arizona University with a Master’s in Educational Leadership. She is a Certified Trainer from Achieve Global with over 20 years’ experience in Senior Human Resources Management for multimillion and $2.5 Billion dollar companies. Her extensive experience includes recruiting, diversity, training, compensation, employee relations and employment law. Lydia is a former small business owner of ReActivate, LLC, in Tucson, AZ where she dedicated time and resources to community outreach with increasing awareness on the importance of living healthy and active lifestyles.
In 2014, Lydia joined The University of Arizona, College of Medicine Faculty Affairs and Office of Diversity Inclusion focusing on Faculty Recruitment and Development with the Faculty Fellows Mentoring Program (FFMP). The FFMP program increases engagement, retention and promotion of faculty members from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. She provided vision and oversight for underrepresented minority faculty development, including determining appropriate support, resources, programming and training opportunities to foster successful professional growth for faculty. She also designed and administered mentoring and training programs for faculty, including specialized curriculum for faculty underrepresented in medicine.On April 28, 2016, Lydia became the Director, Office of Diversity and Inclusion for University of Arizona Health Sciences.
Lydia serves as a committee member for Kind Colleagues at the UA College of Medicine –Tucson and co-chairs the Equity and Mentoring sub-committee for the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) as well as serves as an Executive Board Member, where she created campus-wide Outstanding Mentor Awards for faculty, appointed professionals and classified staff. Recently, she was nominated for both the Lura Hanekamp Award of Excellence and the UA Award of Excellence.
