Jesenia Minier-Jennings Appointed as Isenberg’s Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

The Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has appointed Jesenia Minier-Jennings as Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB), beginning in January.

“I am so excited about coming into this position and working with Dean Massey and all of the other associate and assistant deans across the school,” says Minier-Jennings. “With Isenberg now instituting someone in this role, it gives us a wonderful opportunity for beneficial outcomes in various areas that perhaps have been unchecked for some time.”

Minier-Jennings’s eighteen-year career has focused on leadership vision, strategy, and operational execution for university and municipal agencies with diverse missions and goals. She is a results-driven visionary with a record of success developing and operationalizing strategies, initiatives, and programs that engage and unite diverse missions and leading institutional committees, groups, and organizations. Her skills include creating a compelling vision for equity planning, communicating a call to action on DEIB programming and event planning, and building high-performing teams enthusiastic about achieving organizational objectives in diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and access/acceptance. She is characterized as an analytical, collaborative, and success-oriented leader.

“I am thrilled to welcome Jesenia to Isenberg,” says Isenberg Dean Anne Massey. “She has a strong record implementing institutional DEIB leadership practices, and she has wonderful ideas for creating inclusive, relevant, accessible curriculum that supports our goals to attract and retain target groups and equip students to respond to increasingly diverse work environments.”

A recognized leader, Minier-Jennings has expertise in implementing women’s equality; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersexual, asexual (“LGBTQIA”) equality; and immigrant civic engagement. “One of the things I want to be sure about as I’m examining the culture is looking at the curriculum that exists within Isenberg and recognizing if there is an integration of DEIB in the classroom and how that is woven into the fabric of areas of study,” she says. “I want to ensure that there are identities that are being represented well, that courses, workshops, and training modules are built around DEIB issues and provide support to students, instructors and staff to prepare to facilitate these kinds of discussions in the classroom and the workplace.”

With the goal and intention of being available for everyone, Minier-Jennings will implement an open-door policy at her office in the newly established Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging temporarily located in Isenberg 116, and says she encourages all members of the Isenberg community to stop by in person and learn more about the upcoming opportunities, initiatives, and happenings.  The DEIB webpage is in the process of a redesign, but more information will become available promptly. 

About the Isenberg School of Management

The Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has one of New England’s top-ranked public business school undergraduate programs, according to U.S. News & World Report. Founded in 1947, Isenberg is AACSB-accredited and has more than 4,000 undergraduates majoring in seven business disciplines, ranging from accounting and marketing to sport and hospitality and tourism management. More than 2,000 students are enrolled in nationally and internationally recognized on-campus and online graduate programs. The school’s 50,000 alumni live and work in more than 80 countries, and many of them serve as mentors, guest lecturers, and network connectors for Isenberg.

About the University of Massachusetts Amherst

UMass Amherst, one of the nation’s top-ranked public universities, is located in the heart of New England where our 24,000 undergraduate and 7,800 graduate students discover their strengths, expand their vision, and reach out to change the world. Here we have more than 1,500 full-time faculty members dedicated to creating vast opportunities for our students. UMass Amherst is distinguished not only by the excellence and breadth of its research and academic programs but by a diverse community united in the commitment to the relentless pursuit of progress. For more information, visit: www.umass.edu.