UMass VP to serve as interim leader of UMass Boston

The Boston Globe · Tonya Alanez · 2026-11-05 15:30 UTC

Nefertiti Walker has served on UMass president Marty Meehan's leadership team since 2023.

A top academic officer at the University of Massachusetts who also teaches MBA courses has been tapped to fill in as UMass Boston’s interim chancellor, Marty Meehan, president of the UMass system, announced Thursday.

Nefertiti Walker, known as “Nef,” will begin her new role Feb. 1. She takes over for outgoing chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, who is stepping down to focus on global climate resilience and the ethical development and use of artificial intelligence.

Walker teaches graduate and undergraduate courses at UMass Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management. She is a scholar of organizational culture research with a focus on the experiences of marginalized identities in sports organization. She was an NCAA Division 1 basketball player at Georgia Tech and Stetson University and has written a book about women in sports.

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