Higher education diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have become an imperative for institutional change in an ever-changing pluralistic society. The impact of diversity on college campuses has come a long way since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Chang, 2005), but there is still needed work. Higher education institutions continue to grapple with ways to build institutional capacity, meaning "how diversity is embedded in every core function including research, hiring, competencies required, and serving the 'public good'" (Smith, 2020). Research on DEI in higher education has spanned the literature to include topics on racial climate, student access and success, curriculum impact, intergroup relations, and the professoriate, but few studies have focused on the process of DEI agendas' implementation and cultural change. In the context of the current societal shifts toward anti-racism, inclusive excellence, and equity mindedness, this study investigated how change unfolded and the role of leadership in diversity initiatives at two liberal arts colleges. This dissertation examines the process of implementing a diversity agenda to improve the campus racial climate and create inclusive environments for the campus community, utilizing qualitative methods and a cross-case study approach to explore how these peer institutions approached DEI initiatives. Semi-structured interviews with 31 participants and triangulated data across multiple sources, including institutional documents and reports, websites, news outlets, and social media, helped contextualize information and analyze data to understand how change unfolded at these institutions. The institutions in this study represent different phases of DEI implementation. Schein's (1980) three levels of culture and Kotter's (2012) framework for organizational change provided conceptual frameworks to analyze and frame a deep examination of these campuses' diversity agenda implementation process. Key findings illustrate DEI change processes in decentralized liberal arts institutions, the role of the president and governance structures in the change process, and the role of loud and persistent student voices to inform the leadership of the lived experiences of its student body. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]