With the permanent selection of the new vice president and vice provost of minority affairs and diversity at hand, the second of the two final candidates will make her presentation this afternoon.

Sheila Edwards Lange, the interim vice president, will be speaking today at 3 p.m. in the Bank of America Executive Education Center’s Douglas Forum. Her presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session and reception in the Education Center’s Seminar Room. The event is open to the public.

Lange, who has served as interim vice president since Nancy “Rusty” Barcelo’s departure to the University of Minnesota last year, is one of two candidates being considered for the position after a semi-final and final elimination headed up by an advisory committee. Candidate John Baugh made his presentation Tuesday.

“Everybody’s going to get a chance to meet [her], and people are going to feed [the advisory committee] their responses,” said Norm Arkans, director of media relations for the UW. “The committee will then meet and develop a suggestion. Then President [Mark] Emmert and Provost [Phyllis] Wise will get to pick.”

The advisory committee will deliberate after both presentations and make its suggestion. The final decision is expected to be madesometime before the end of the quarter, Arkans said.

“This is an important position at the University in terms of fostering diversity,” he said, adding that the final decision would not be an easy one.

Although the position has existed in various incarnations for a long time, the joint vice president and vice provost position is a more recent development.

“The positions have been reconfigured to be the vice president for minority affairs and vice provost for diversity,” said Robert Crutchfield, sociology professor and member of the advisory committee. “That’s been done in the last couple of years. [The position] leads the administrative diversity efforts on campus.”

Lange’s résumé includes a bachelor’s in social ecology from the University of California, Irvine, an MPA and a Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy studies from the UW and 20 years of administrative experience in higher education institutions.

Among her past administrative positions are executive assistant to the presidents of Western Washington University and North Seattle Community College, executive assistant for education and planning, research assistant to the President’s Advisory Committee on Women, associate director of the Center for Workforce Development, and special assistant to the vice president/vice provost for minority affairs and diversity until assuming the interim position May of last year.

Reach reporter Jeff Tripoli at news@thedaily.washington.edu.