Nzinga Shaw is the Senior Vice President of Community and Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer of the Atlanta Hawks & Philips Arena organization. She is the first person to hold this position in the National Basketball Association. In her role, Shaw is responsible for developing and embedding diversity and inclusion best practices throughout the organization. She has designed a strategic, cross-departmental program that creates deeper cultural awareness and sensitivity. Additionally, Shaw serves as a member of the Executive Committee and provides guidance to the leadership team so that they can engender inclusivity in every facet of the business. Shaw is developing a strategy to embed equity and inclusion in all programmatic activity, governance and daily administration of the organization. She is focused on building a foundation that will advance this strategy as a core component of the Atlanta Hawks & Philips Arena brand, and to drive the business. This initiative extend to fans, customers, community partners and within the workforce.

Prior to joining the Atlanta Hawks & Philips Arena, Shaw has been at the forefront of leading organizational change through diversity. She served as Senior Vice President, Diversity & Inclusion Officer at Edelman, the world’s largest and most profitable public relations agency. Simultaneously, she led the human resources function for Edelman’s southeast and southwest regions. She also worked in human resources at Essence Magazine, the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network, and the National Football League. Shaw is also on the Board of Directors of the City of Atlanta’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative. She is an alumna of Spelman College where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree, the University of Pennsylvania where she received a Master of Liberal Arts degree, and she was a study abroad scholar at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.