The executive vice president and chief people officer of Lincoln Financial Group brings human resources experience and a life-long passion for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)
PHILADELPHIA, October 20, 2022 — Temple University’s Fox School of Business Center for Ethics, Diversity and Workplace Culture (CEDWC) is a hub for research, dialogue and innovation focused on diversity, ethical decision-making and the creation of healthy workplace cultures. As part of that mission, the Center recently named a new Senior Advisory Board Chairperson.
“CEDWC is thrilled to welcome Jen Warne as the new chair of our advisory board,” says Leora Eisenstadt, director of CEDWC, associate professor of legal studies and the Murray Shusterman Research Fellow. “Lincoln Financial Group has been a longtime partner of Temple University and the Fox School of Business, and we are pleased to continue that partnership through Jen’s ongoing work with CEDWC. Jen’s strategic contributions to CEDWC have been fundamental to our center’s growth this past year and we look forward to working under Jen’s guidance moving forward.”
The Senior Advisory Board is comprised of 14 other senior executives from multinational corporations, such as Comcast, AIG, Burlington Stores, Inc. and more.
Warne, BBA ’99, executive vice president and chief people officer at Lincoln Financial Group, has 25 years of experience working in the human resources (HR) field. In her current role, Warne oversees all human resources areas, including the office of diversity, equity and inclusion, talent management, recruiting, employee relations, business partnering, HR technology and operations, benefits and wellness programs, compensation, and the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts.
After a few HR internships, Warne launched her full-time HR career in 1996 with Towers Perrin (now Willis Towers Watson), while she continued to pursue her undergraduate degree at Temple full-time in the evenings. Throughout her tenure there and during her time with Lincoln Financial Group, Warne has always been actively involved with Temple University, including university recruitment, placing many interns and full-time students over the years.
“I have always been committed to investing in Temple talent,” says Warne. “I am now truly honored to be appointed to chair the Advisory Board. It represents an incredible opportunity to continue to help students and accelerate the pace of change in the workplace. The potential is enormous, and I look forward to the strategic work we’ll do to help build workforces and workplace cultures that are diverse, equitable and inclusive.”
As her first major undertaking as Chair, Warne plans to do a deep dive into the mission and vision of CEDWC–what challenges have emerged, highlighting major successes and strategizing ways that she and the broader Advisory Board can add the most value.
Looking ahead, Warne hopes that CEDWC will help inspire other organizations to make DEI programming second nature, rather than a box that must be checked.
“I hope our program helps down the road to make academic inclusion the default way we operate–the way we do business without specific programming requirements,” says Warne. “It’s about changing people’s mindsets and articulating the value and the benefits of these activities to the business. That’s one of the goals of CEDWC. You don’t create these programs to accelerate an agenda–you want it to just be the way you do things, and it requires a lot more attention, education and awareness to help be part of that change.”
CEDWC has centered its programming around this very idea. For example, last spring CEDWC hosted the Equality at Work: Voices of Pride conference, which was conceptualized by three Fox Honors students and featured several expert panels and a keynote address discussing LGBTQIA+ issues in the workplace. The Center also co-organized the Digital Transformation of Workforce Development conference, which brought together industry leaders and research experts to participate in robust discussions of challenges and opportunities in the workforce development ecosystem.
This fall, CEDWC began the semester with a university-wide, collaborative event titled “Rooney Rule Revisited: Race and Diversity in Sports and Corporate America,” which featured Jim Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Jeremi Duru, law professor at American University, to discuss the rule and its implications in the broader business world.
For more information about CEDWC, visit the CEDWC website and read this Q&A with Professor Eisenstadt.
ABOUT THE FOX SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
The vision of Temple University’s Fox School of Business is to transform student lives, develop leaders, and impact our local and global communities through excellence and innovation in education and research.
The Fox School’s research institutes and centers as well as 200+ full-time faculty provide access to market-leading technologies and foster a collaborative and creative learning environment that offers more than curriculum—it offers an experience. Coupled with its leading student services, the Fox School ensures that its graduates are fully prepared to enter the job market.
The flexibility and responsiveness of our knowledge-creating research faculty allow the school to address the needs of industry and generate courses and programs in emerging fields. As a leader in business research, the Fox School values interdisciplinary approaches and translational research that influence and impact real-world problems. Our research informs an adaptive curriculum, supports innovation in teaching and prepares students for the ever-changing business environment.
About Lincoln Financial Group
Lincoln Financial Group provides advice and solutions that help people take charge of their financial lives with confidence and optimism. Today, approximately 16 million customers trust our retirement, insurance and wealth protection expertise to help address their lifestyle, savings and income goals, and guard against long-term care expenses. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) and its affiliates. The company had $279 billion in end-of-period account values as of June 30, 2022. Lincoln Financial Group is a committed corporate citizen included on major sustainability indices including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America and FTSE4Good and ranks among Newsweek’s Most Responsible Companies. Dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion, we are included on transparency benchmarking tools such as the Corporate Equality Index, the Disability Equality Index and the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index. Committed to providing our employees with flexible work arrangements, they were named to FlexJobs’ list of the Top 100 Companies to Watch for Remote Jobs in 2022. With a long and rich legacy of acting ethically, telling the truth and speaking up for what is right, Lincoln was recognized as one of Ethisphere’s 2022 World’s Most Ethical Companies®. Learn more at: www.LincolnFinancial.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Sign up for email alerts at http://newsroom.lfg.com.