Regina A. Caines has been appointed to the new position of special assistant for affirmative action/equal employment opportunity (AA/EEO), reporting to Vice President for Human Resources Joan M. Rice.
Ms. Caines will be responsible for defining, implementing and evaluating progress regarding MIT's affirmative action goals and equal opportunity policies and procedures. Her duties will include developing strategies to support timely and good-faith efforts toward attaining MIT's affirmative action goal to attract and hire from more diverse applicant pools. She will serve as the Institute's central liaison with external and internal agencies and offices concerned with civil rights, equal opportunity and federal compliance concerns and complaint resolutions.
To accomplish these tasks, Ms. Caines will work to gain the confidence and cooperation of hiring managers through educational programs, sharing ideas and developing team support focused on the achievement of diversity through affirmative action at MIT.
Before coming to MIT, Ms. Caines was the director of the AA/EEO office of the Cambridge public schools for six years. She was also the corporate director for AA/EEO in the human resources division of Polaroid Corp. in Cambridge from 1984-89.
This was one of several positions Ms. Caines held at Polaroid, including manager for quality control in the battery manufacturing division, manager for domestic consumer relations in the marketing division, and senior laboratory supervisor and scientist in film research and development. She also conducted analytical research regarding the carcinogenic effects of cigarette smoking at Arthur D. Little and did semiconductor research for Raytheon Co. earlier in her career.
Ms. Caines holds the BA from Regis College in Weston, MA, the MS in chemistry from Tufts University and the JD from the Massachusetts School of Law. She is a trustee of several organizations, including Boston's Archdi-ocesan Financial Council, Schools for Children/New England Historic Seaport, and most recently, Regis College.
"I'm very happy about coming to work at MIT, since most of my professional life has been in and around Cambridge and I'm well aware of MIT's fine reputation," Ms. Caines said. "I'm also very impressed with the stated commitment of President Vest [to affirmative action] and very encouraged by the fact that he's been so direct and candid about his hopes and expectations."
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on January 14, 1998.
