The University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday announced a new dean for its famed business school Wharton. Erika H. James will be the first woman dean and the first African American to lead the business school, reported The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Business Journal, respectively. She will assume her new role July 1.
Erika H. JamesJames currently serves as dean of the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann called her “a strong, proven leader.”
“A passionate and visible champion of the power of business and business education to positively transform communities locally, nationally, and globally, she is exceptionally well prepared to lead Wharton into the next exciting chapter of its storied history,” said Gutmann.
James has a Ph.D. and master’s degree in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Pomona College of the Claremont Colleges, in California.
