Employee Directory

Tony Laing Assistant Professor
PAL

Dr. Tony Laing is a leader in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) with more than two decades of experience across K–12 and higher education. His work focuses on institutional excellence, student success, and equity-centered change.

Dr. Laing currently serves as Assistant Professor on special appointment in the Program for Advancement of Learning at Curry College, where he supports neurodivergent students through executive functioning support, academic strategy development, and persistence coaching. Expanding his prior long-standing commitment to racial equity and educational access, his work also now centers neurodiversity, disability justice, and inclusive learning design. Through strengths-based pedagogy and student-centered systems, he advances models that foster access, belonging, and academic success.

Previously, Dr. Laing served as the inaugural Assistant Vice President for DEIB at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), where he chaired the institution’s first DEIB Symposium, wrote the three-year DEIB strategic plan for his unit, strengthened employee resource groups, and advanced inclusive policy initiatives. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an internationally recognized organization based in the United Kingdom that convenes leaders committed to social progress, innovation, and public impact across education, the arts, and civic life.

Before joining WPI, Dr. Laing served as K–12 Director of the Wayland METCO program, where his leadership contributed to a 100% college acceptance rate. He was the inaugural director of the Men of Color Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, and increased associate degree completion rates among male students of color by 25%. And he is founder and CEO of Laing Equity Education Group LLC, advising K-12 and higher education institutions on equity-centered leadership and organizational transformation.

A respected scholar and higher education governance leader, Dr. Laing has written on student voice, educational access, and equity, particularly for historically marginalized communities. He is co-editor of Black Student Support Networks: Creating Community at HBCUs and PWIs and serves as a trustee of Montserrat College of Art and trustee emeritus of Wheaton College (Massachusetts).

Dr. Laing earned his Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies and Organizational Leadership from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, along with additional graduate degrees from NYU Wagner, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He also holds a certificate in DEIB/HR from Cornell University.