Bio
Nefertiti A. Walker is the Interim Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion & Chief Diversity Officer at UMass Amherst. She is also an Associate Professor in the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management, which resides in the Isenberg School of Management. Her areas of expertise are intersectionality, particularly at the nexus of race, gender, and sport culture. Her work has been published in top journals such as, Journal of Sport Management and Journal of Business Research. Dr. Walker is a Research Fellow with the North American Society for Sport Management – signifying the top 10% of researchers in her field. She was awarded the 2017-18 Isenberg School of Management Teaching Excellence Award and the 2018-19 Isenberg School of Management Research Excellence Award. She is also a former NCAA DI basketball player (Georgia Tech & Stetson University), coach, and was inducted into the Stetson University Hall of Fame.
Dr. Walker considers herself an advocate working towards social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion in sport business. She currently serves on the espnW College Advisory Panel, is a member of The Collective Think Tank, and is co-director for the Laboratory for Inclusion and Diversity in Sport (LIDS). She is also Editor-In-Chief for Sport Business Management: An International Journal.
Previous leadership roles include UMass Athletic Council member, Co-Chair of the Diversity Committee for the North American Society for Sport Management, Faculty Advisor for the Association of Diversity in Sport, member of the UMass Amherst Stonewall Center Advisory Board, and Vice President for Inclusion and Social Justice for the National Association for Girls and Women in Sports. Her work has been mentioned on espn.com, espnW.com, TIME Sports, and other sport news outlets.
