Wanda Hayes

Wanda Hayes serves as the Talent Management and Executive Development Advisor to the Executive Vice President for Business and Administration/CFO.  In this role, she is responsible for the development and implementation of a strategy and architecture to ensure the ongoing development of the EVPBA leadership team.  She provides integrated talent management and succession planning for the leadership of the BA division; provides guidance for DEI frameworks; and, designs, develops, and implements projects that lead to new strategic and innovative ways to address talent issues.  Hayes also serves as a resource on executive talent management for other members of the President’s Leadership Team.

Hayes joined Emory University in 2007 in the Human Resources division where she held progressive leadership roles over her 15-year tenure in HR leading the learning, organizational development, and diversity and inclusion education functions, ultimately serving as an Assistant Vice President.  Under her leadership, Emory was recognized as a “LearningElite Organization” by Chief Learning Officer Magazine for ten consecutive years, as well as receiving other national awards for their leadership programs.  Hayes was the recipient of the Atlanta Business Chronicle/SHRM-Atlanta Inaugural HR Excellence Award in 2019 for the “Best Learning & Development and Talent Management Strategy” and she was honored in 2017 with the Emory University Award of Distinction.

Prior to joining Emory University, she held positions focused on leadership development at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and leadership assessment at BellSouth Corporation.  Her work in higher education began at the University of South Carolina Aiken, where she held an administrative position focused on academic assessment and institutional research, as well as teaching as an adjunct faculty member in the School of Business and the Department of Psychology.  She began her career as an independent consultant providing services to industry, local government agencies, and institutions of higher education.

Hayes earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology, as well as her master’s and doctoral degrees in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Georgia, and she is a licensed psychologist in the State of Georgia.