Dia Fortenberry was appointed as the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Engagements and Initiatives NCAA Intern in the summer of 2022 and was promoted to Assistant Athletic Director for Diversity Equity, Inclusion, and Engagements heading into the 2024-25 season.
In a newly-established position at Wesleyan, Fortenberry is tasked with creating programming and providing resources to enhance the University and athletic department's understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion. She will also hold a major role within Wesleyan's student-athlete driven Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee.
Fortenberry comes to Wesleyan after having most-recently served as an elementary school teacher for the James Singleton Charter in Louisiana. She was responsible for teaching third and fourth grade classes in english language arts, science and social students with accordance with LEAP cirriculum and state school standards.
While an undergrad at Millsaps College, Fortenberry was a panelist on ethnic diversity in sport for the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) in 2020. She was selected as one of three students to speak to athletic directors across the nation about her personal experiences and provide direction on proper DEI practices.
She founded the Black Athlete Empowerment (BAE) and served as President during her senior year at Millsaps. The student association was created to unite black athletes, affirming experiences, uplifting and uniting all athletes and providing resources like mental health, self-image and story-telling workshops.
A highly-distinguished student at Millsaps, Fortenberry was named Millsaps' Most Distinguished Woman in 2021 as well as a Hall of Fame inductee for the College that same year. She was invited to the NCAA Women's and Ethnic Minorities DEI orientation in 2022 as well as the NCAA Div. III Student Immersion convention in 2021 and the NCAA DIv. III Leadership Conference in 2018. Fortenberry was also a resident assistant her senior year, spent her junior and senior years as a member of the sociology and anthropology club and was a four-year member of the Muslim Student's Association (MSA).
A standout on the basketball court, Fortenberry was a four-time All-Southern Athletic Association (SAA) performer for Millsaps. She earned SAA Defensive Player of the Year honors and was an All-South Region Second Team honoree her senior year in 2020-21.
