Edna B. Chun is an educational thought leader and award-winning author with more than two decades of strategic human resource and diversity leadership experience in higher education. Dr. Chun teaches in the Human Capital Management Department at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies. She currently serves as Chief Learning Officer for HigherEd Talent, a Strategic Leadership and Organizational Development consulting firm.
Dr. Chun has co-authored fifteen books and numerous journal articles in the areas of human resources, diversity, and talent management. Her coauthored book with Alvin Evans, The Department Chair as Transformative Diversity Leader, was recently selected as number one among the twenty best higher education ebooks of all time by a panel of international thought leaders at book authority.com. The book is the first research-based resource on the academic department chair’s role in diversity transformation.
Her award-winning books include Are the Walls Really Down? Behavioral and Organizational Barriers to Faculty and Staff Diversity (Jossey-Bass, 2007), and Bridging the Diversity Divide: Globalization and Reciprocal Empowerment in Higher Education (Jossey-Bass, 2009) coauthored with Alvin Evans. Both books received the prestigious Kathryn G. Hansen Publication Award by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) for their contribution to the human resource profession. Chun and Evans’ co-authored book, The New Talent Acquisition Frontier: Integrating HR and Diversity Strategy in the Private and Public Sectors and Higher Education (Stylus, 2014), received a silver medal in the 2014 Axiom Business Book Awards and is the first book to provide a concrete road map to the integration of HR and diversity strategy.
Among her most recent books are Leading a Diversity Culture Shift in Higher Education (Routledge, 2018) and Conducting an Institutional Diversity Audit in Higher Education with Alvin Evans (Stylus, 2019); Rethinking Diversity Frameworks in Higher Education with Joe Feagin (Routledge, 2020); Leveraging Multigenerational Workforce Strategies in Higher Education (Routledge, 2021) and The Challenges of Minoritized Contingent Faculty in Higher Education with Alvin Evans (Purdue University Press, 2024) and Transformational Music Teaching with George S.T. Chu (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).
Dr. Chun is a sought-after plenary speaker and presenter on diversity, human resources, and talent management strategies at national and regional conferences. She was awarded the Excellence in Human Resources Award by the South Florida Business Journal for her accomplishments in recruitment, retention, and teambuilding. She was also the recipient of the Multi-cultural Achievers Award by InFOCUS Magazine. She serves as a member of a number of influential national and local boards including the Advisory Board of the Department Chair Newsletter (Jossey Bass); Board of Directors of Kendal-at-Home; Board of Directors, Fund for Leadership, Equity, Access, and Diversity, American Association for Access, Equity, and Diversity; and the Board of Directors of the Leadership in Higher Education Conference. She was elected for two successive three-year terms to the Editorial Advisory Board for the Higher Education Report Series of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.
Dr. Chun holds the Doctor of Music and Master of Music degrees with High Distinction from the Indiana University School of Music, the Master of Arts degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude from Oberlin College.