Erika James is the first Black person and woman to be appointed dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, reports the Philadelphia Business Journal.

The Ivy League business program has a storied legacy and has consistently been ranked as the best in the country. James has an impressive resumé in academia fitting of the appointment. She will replace Geoff Garrett, who accepted a position as dean of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

With a master's and Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan, her career has focused on leadership development with an emphasis on gender, racial diversity and crisis leadership. She parlayed her academic expertise into leading Emory's Goizueta Business School for almost six years. While there, she also became the first woman, and Black person, to be named dean of the business school.

During her tenure at Emory she facilitated faculty and student unconscious bias workshops, a niche skill that caused her to be sought out by "some of the nation's largest and most prestigious firms," Penn Provost Wendell Pritchett said in a statement featured on the school’s website.

“Erika has consistently and constructively drawn upon her own scholarship in the areas of leadership development, organizational behavior, gender and racial diversity, and crisis leadership,” Pritchett said further.

At Goizueta Business School she introduced and spearheaded an effort to introduce an innovation and entrepreneurship lab freely accessible to all students on campus. She grew the faculty by 25% during her first term and bulked up the numbers for essential junior faculty and accomplished scholars in areas like behavioral and decision-based research.

“Erika is an award-winning scholar and teacher and a strong, proven leader who serves as dean of the Goizueta Business School at Emory University,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann.  

Before serving at Emory, James was a senior associate dean for executive education at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. She taught at both Tulane University's Freeman School of Business as an assistant professor and at Harvard Business School as a visiting professor.

As far as awards and professional accolades, she has a lot. She’s an involved member of the SurveyMonkey Board. She’s also been awarded the Earl Hill Jr. Faculty Achievement and Diversity Award from The Consortium, which is "an organization committed to growing diversity in business, starting with graduate school admissions."

As the cherry on top, in 2014 she was named one of the Top 10 Women of Power in Education by Black Enterprise.

James' commitment to intersectional professional relationships and crisis management will undoubtedly be of use to the University of Pennsylvania, who had a law professor just last year come under fire for saying the country would be better off with fewer "nonwhites," as Blavity previously reported. 

Wharton was founded in 1881 as the world’s first collegiate business school. It touts a faculty of more than 235 professors and 5,000 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA and doctoral students.

“This is an exciting time to be in business education,” said James. “The scope and platform of the Wharton School provides an opportunity to create far reaching impact for students, scholars, and the business community.”

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