Dominique Jordan Turner

Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer

Dominique Jordan Turner is Loyola University Chicago’s Chief Diversity Officer and the Vice President of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Sitting on the University’s Leadership Council, Jordan Turner leads and coordinates DEI efforts across Loyola’s campuses and is working collaboratively to establish the university as a powerful example for other higher education institutions striving to become more equitable, inclusive and justice-oriented in alignment with our Jesuit Catholic tradition. Jordan Turner’s work is helping to foster a climate and culture at the institution that supports growth and development, access, and opportunity for every Loyolan. 

Equity, justice and excellence are central to her value system.  She was born on Chicago’s South Side and was the first person in her family to graduate college. College sent her to Clark Atlanta University, a historically Black university. Like many high-performing graduates in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Jordan Turner began her career in management consulting, working for Deloitte. After hitting what she calls her “quarter-life crisis”, she decided to leave Deloitte after four years for a position in the Peace Corps. Her placement was in Panama, where she used her business training to empower some of the regions most marginalized residents. That decision and experience abroad gave her life a renewed purpose.  

Since the Peace Corps, she received her MBA from Marquette University with a focus in Urban Leadership. She has dedicated her career to helping first-generation, low-income Chicago students get to and through college and become leaders. She has held senior leadership positions at KIPP Foundation, Posse Foundation and Chicago Scholars. As the CEO of Chicago Scholars, she oversaw a five-fold expansion of its staff and budget. (In 2020, LeBron James named Chicago Scholars his nonprofit of choice during the NBA's All-Star Game festivities in Chicago.)  

One of her most notable accomplishments is being selected as one of 20 inaugural Obama Fellows among an applicant pool of over 20,000. Outside of her professional duties, she is a proud mom to a teen daughter who is a scholar at Whitney Young High School. They share a passion for inspiring others. They co-authored an Amazon best-selling book in 2020 entitled: Little Black Pearls for Little Black Girls which is meant to inspire pride and confidence in little girls who will be tomorrow’s leaders.  

Dominique Jordan Turner is the first person in Loyola’s history to occupy her position.