About Derron

Derron Borders (DARE-in) grew up in a small rural Ohio town, just south of Columbus. He was the first in his family to complete a four-year degree and holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in French and linguistics from The Ohio State University. After spending two years in France and Spain teaching English, post-graduation, Derron attended the University of Utah where he served as the Project Manager of the Shoshoni Language Project while pursuing a Master of Arts in linguistics.

It was during this time — working on Shoshoni language revitalization with individual community members from multiple Shoshone nations — Derron was drawn to a career in supporting student identity development. Derron pursued a Master of Arts in college student personnel at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio where he served as the Graduate Coordinator for the Ethnic Student Center in the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

Derron began his career at Cornell in 2016, first as the Resident Hall Director of the Language House, a language immersion living-learning community, which is part of the West Campus House System. He then spent time as the Assistant Director of Student Life and Academic Programming at Cornell in Washington, in Washington, D.C. before returning to Ithaca to serve in the role of Director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the SC Johnson Graduate School of Management in November of 2021.

Derron is passionate about using an anti-racist framework to dismantle larger systems of oppression. He pushes for allyship to be intersectional and to serve the most marginalized within a group. As a former member of ACPA – College Student Educators International, Derron founded the Task Force for Fat Folx, a coalition of fat higher education professionals working towards fat liberation within higher education. Derron has done many workshops and presentations on fat liberation.

Derron serves as the Chair of the Measurement and Accountability Committee as part of the SC Johnson College of Business Dean’s Leadership Council on Combatting Racism and Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. He also serves as the Cornell Employee Assembly representative for the College.

In his free time Derron enjoys being out in the Ithaca community and nature, learning languages, traveling, and consuming as much information as his ADHD brain can possibly handle.