Sekile M. Nzinga PhD, MSW

Sekile M. Nzinga PhD, MSW is the inaugural Chief Equity Officer for the State of Illinois and the former interim Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Provost of Diversity and Inclusion at Northwestern University. Prior to working as the Director of The Women’s Center and as senior administrator at Northwestern, she was a  professor of Social Work and Women and Gender Studies for 18 years. Her engaged scholarship and teaching have centered on the intersections of race, class, and gender in reproduction and parenting; critical feminist university studies; and family centered employment policy. She is the author of Lean Semesters: How the University Reproduces Inequity (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020) and the editor of Laboring Positions: Black Women, Mothering and the Academy (Demeter, 2013). She was the 2020-21 Author in Residence at HigherEd Jobs.

Nzinga’s engaged professional work has focused on health and educational equity; reproductive health and justice, and serving as a executive leader for progressive, social justice oriented, and feminist not-for-profit organizations. She is the former board chair of the Chicago Abortion Fund and is on the Board of Radical Mamas. Nzinga is also the recipient of the 2019 Evanston-Northshore YWCA’s Women in Leadership Award.