In an email to students on Thursday night, Yale College Dean Mary Miller announced that Melanie Boyd ’90 will leave her position as special assistant to the dean on gender issues in order to take on her new role as the assistant dean of student affairs.

“Melanie has played an increasingly important role in the work of the [Yale College Dean’s Office] as we strive to create a safe campus environment that reflects our shared values of integrity, civility, and respect,” Miller wrote. “Yale College students have already benefitted in many ways from Melanie’s efforts – not only from her expertise, but also from her care and concern.”

Boyd was an active presence in the conversations that followed the controversy surrounding the inflammatory DKE pledge ritual last October. She attended and helped support two open forums held in the month following the incident, where discussion centered around the need to reform sexual culture at Yale and the University’s sexual misconduct response system.

Boyd was also behind the new peer education program launched this fall aimed at teaching students how to identify and prevent sexual misconduct.

“These are difficult issues and require frank, thoughtful conversations — the kind of discussions students are often most willing to have with other students,” Boyd said in an interview with the News in September.

Before taking her new position, Boyd was also the director of undergraduate studies for Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She will now report to Dean of Student Affairs Marichal Gentry.