Walker Promoted to New Position; Associate Dean for an Inclusive Organization in Isenberg

Nefertiti Walker
Nefertiti Walker

The Isenberg School of Management has appointed Nefertiti Walker, professor of sport managerment, to the newly created position of associate dean for an inclusive organization.

In 2017, Walker was appointed the school’s director of diversity and inclusion. Since beginning her new role in January, Walker oversees the school’s human resources department and strategic vision for diversity.

“At Isenberg, we are committed to pursuing inclusion with a capital ‘I,’ involving every student, professor and staff member,” stated the school’s interim dean, Tom Moliterno. “Professor Walker brings significant expertise and a passion for her work to her new role. She will no doubt inspire the Isenberg community through her engaging and innovative approach to inclusiveness.”

Walker will oversee both the chief personnel officer and, once the position has been filled, the school’s chief diversity officer.

According to Walker, hiring a full-time chief diversity officer will expand and highlight the scope of Isenberg’s inclusion efforts.

“That on-the-ground position will focus on engagement, including students, alumni and corporate partners,” Walker says.

She adds that in order to examine issues from different angles, Isenberg has also created a 13-member inclusiveness committee comprising faculty, staff and students.

Walker’s more than 50 publications and presentations have explored marginalized and underrepresented identities in the workplace and the development of inclusive cultures.

This semester, Walker is launched a series of panels called Conversations. The first featured a panel of Major League Baseball executives discussing inclusiveness issues in baseball, notably along gender and color lines. Later in the semester, executives from the accounting firm PwC will lead workshops revealing unconscious cultural biases in the workplace. A third panel will explore how artificial intelligence and other manifestations such as “augmented reality” can spread and amplify biases that undermine inclusiveness.