Four African Americans Who Have Been Appointed Diversity Officers

Damita Davis will be the new chief diversity officer at the College of Brockport of the State University of New York System, effective July 1. She was the associate director of programming and educational initiatives in the Office for Institutional Diversity at Boston College.

Davis holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in human development and family studies from the University of Rhode Island. She is a doctoral candidate in higher education at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Sarah Walker, an associate professor of management in the Heider College of Business at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, is taking on new duties as interim vice provost for institutional diversity and inclusion. Prior to joining Creighton University in 2018, Dr. Walker served for 10 years on the faculty of the Marilyn Davies College of Business at the University of Houston – Downtown. Dr. Walker’s research interests include examining the experiences of marginalized individuals at work with a specific focus on individual and organizational-level strategies for creating more equitable workplaces.

Dr. Walker holds a Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Bryan Samuel was appointed vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Texas at Arlington. He has been serving as chief diversity and inclusion officer at Kansas State University since 2018. Earlier, he was director of the Office of Equity and Diversity at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga.

Dr. Samuel earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a master’s degree in community counseling from the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. He earned a doctorate in higher education administration from the Univerity of Nebraska.

Nefertiti Walker, an associate professor of sports management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was given the added duties of vice chancellor for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer for the university. She joined the faculty at the university in 2011.

Dr. Walker holds a bachelor’s degree and MBA both from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. She earned a Ph.D. in sport management from the University of Florida.

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