E. Frances White was appointed Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs in 2005.

White was previously dean of NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, a title she held from 1998 to 2005. Prior to coming to NYU, White was a professor of history and Black studies at Hampshire College, where she also served as Dean of the School of Social Science and Dean of Faculty. While completing her Ph.D. at Boston University, she was an instructor at the University of Sierra Leone and a research assistant at the Afro-American Studies Center at Boston University.

White's scholarship has helped define the role of women and work in Africa. She has authored Dark Continent of Our Bodies: Black Feminism and the Politics of Respectability, co-authored Woman in Sub-Saharan Africa, and had several additional publications and papers on Black studies and women's history.

White has been named a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Sierra Leone and a Mellon Scholar and has received a Kidder-Peabody Grant for research in The Gambia. Her appointments include membership on the Five College Black Studies Executive Committee and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Massachusetts.

White has a B.A. from Wheaton College (1971), an M.A in African history and a Ph.D. from Boston University (1973, 1978).