John L. Jackson, Jr., Provost, University of Pennsylvania
Erika H. James, Dean of the Wharton School
TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2024 | 12:00PM - 1:00PM / 9:00AM - 10:00AM PT
This session features University of Pennsylvania Provost John L. Jackson, Jr. in conversation with Erika H. James, Dean of the Wharton School, about advice for faculty in leadership roles. Building on Dean James’ recent book (co-authored with Lynn Perry Wooten, President of Simmons University), The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before (Wharton School Press), the session will offer tools and frameworks that faculty leaders can use to address, and learn from, crises.
About THE WORKSHOP LEADERS
John L. Jackson, Jr., is Penn's 31st Provost and the Richard Perry University Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication and the School of Arts and Sciences. A pioneering scholar of urban ethnography, visual culture, and the anthropology of race, he is the only professor in Penn history to serve as Dean of two Penn Schools – the Annenberg School for Communication (2019-2023) and the School of Social Policy and Practice (2014-2018) – and was appointed in 2006 as the first Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, the University-wide initiative to recruit exceptional faculty members whose research and teaching exemplify the integration of knowledge across disciplines. Before coming to Penn, he was a professor of cultural anthropology at Duke University (2002-2006) and a Junior Fellow of the Society of Fellows at Harvard University (1999-2002).
Provost Jackson’s widely influential work includes four major scholarly books – Thin Description: Ethnography and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem (Harvard University Press, 2013); Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness (Civitas, 2008); Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity (University of Chicago Press, 2005); and Harlemworld: Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black America (University of Chicago Press, 2001) – and two co-written books, Televised Redemption: The Media Production of Black Muslims, Jews, and Christians (New York University Press, 2016) and Impolite Conversations: On Race, Class, Sex, Religion, and Politics (Atria, 2014). He has written extensively for such media as the Philadelphia Inquirer, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Los Angeles Times; served in 2009 as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School; and has received the President’s Award from the American Anthropological Association, the Dennis M. DeTurck Award for Innovation in Teaching from the School of Arts and Sciences, and grants from the Ford Foundation and Mellon Foundation, among many other awards and grants.
Provost Jackson is also a producer and/or director of ten films that have been screened at dozens of international film festivals, including the multi-award-winning Making Sweet Tea and the widely screened and taught Bad Friday: Rastafari After Coral Gardens. At Penn, he helped found CAMRA (the Collective for Advancing Multimodal Research Arts), CEE (the Center for Experimental Ethnography), and the Penn Futures Project, a collaboration among three Penn Schools to support schoolchildren and their families in our West Philadelphia community. He has also served at Penn as Chair of the Red and Blue Advisory Committee, Senior Advisor to the Provost on Diversity, Chair of the University Council Committee on Diversity and Equity, and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and for Administration in the Annenberg School for Communication.
Provost Jackson received a PhD and MA in Anthropology from Columbia University and a BA in Communication summa cum laude from Howard University.
Erika H. James is the dean of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Trained as an organizational psychologist, James is a leading expert on crisis leadership, workplace diversity, and management strategy.
Prior to her appointment at Wharton, James was the John H. Harland Dean at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School from 2014 to 2020. An award-winning educator, accomplished consultant, and innovative researcher, she has paved the way for women in leadership both in education and corporate America. James has been instrumental in developing groundbreaking executive education programs, including the Women’s Leadership program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School.
James is a sought-after thought leader whose expertise has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, Bloomberg, The Washington Post, and numerous other media outlets. She has been widely recognized as one of the most powerful and influential women in business and education by Barron’s, Black Enterprise, and Ebony.
In addition to her academic responsibilities, James is a board member of Morgan Stanley, The Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center, Inc., and several organizations that align with her passions for education and advancing women in business. Additionally, she serves as an advisory board member to Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management and as an executive board member to the Indian School of Business.
Her latest book is The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before (Wharton School Press) which she co-authored with Lynn Perry Wooten, President of Simmons University. She and Wooten are also co-authors of Leading Under Pressure: From Surviving to Thriving Before, During, and After a Crisis.
Dean James holds a Ph.D. and master’s degree in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan, as well as a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Pomona College of the Claremont Colleges in California.
This Inclusive Leadership Workshop is brought to you by FAN member the University of Pennsylvania.