The Connecticut organization Lawyers Collaborative for Diversity has announced Joelle A. Murchison has been named the group's new executive director, effective April 1, following the recent departure of founding Director Carolyn Golden Hebsgaard.

An adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut School of Business, Murchison is the founder and principal of ExecMommyGroup, a Connecticut-based inclusion, leadership and coaching consulting practice. She chairs the board of the Hartford-based RE-Center (Race and Equity in Education Center) and serves on the boards of the Amistad Center for Art and Culture, Pembroke Center Associates and College Possible, a national nonprofit focused on college access.

Murchison is a native of Queens, N.Y. who graduated from Brown University, the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications. Her mother was also a trailblazer, serving as the first African American woman manager in the U.S. Social Security Administration in the 1970s.

Murchison began her career in higher education at Wesleyan University followed by a stint in the non-profit sector with INROADS. She then transitioned to corporate America, first with United Technologies and then as the inaugural chief diversity officer at Travelers Insurance. She returned to higher education at UConn in 2016 as the school's first chief diversity officer.

Murchison is a life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Hartford Alumnae Chapter and the National Black MBA Association. She has received the Community Service Award from Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, the Trailblazer Award from the Voices of Women of Color and the Living Waters Award from the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. She is also a member of Brown University's Women's Leadership Council, Corporator for the Village for Families and Children and a member of the Board of Ambassadors of the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

Murchison served two terms on the board of Leadership Greater Hartford and spent 10 years as a diversity trainer with the Anti-Defamation League's A World of Difference Institute. She encourages people to reach for their highest potential, using open dialogue to enhance inclusion and understanding. A mother of four, she balances career and family responsibilities and an active community and volunteer schedule.