Official Site of The State of New Jersey

In May 2018, Governor Phil Murphy appointed Hester Agudosi to serve as the state’s first Chief Diversity Officer, in recognition of her leadership and community outreach experience and her long-standing commitment to ensuring equal opportunity. Ms. Agudosi oversees the state Office of Diversity and Inclusion which has been established to ensure diversity in appointments, recruitment and the execution of diversity and inclusion strategies targeted toward greater utilization of minority, women, veteran and LGBT owned businesses.

Ms. Agudosi spent 19 years serving the State of New Jersey in various senior management roles. Prior to her appointment as Chief Diversity Officer, Ms. Agudosi served as the Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity and Public Contract Assistance at the Department of Environmental Protection. She oversaw the department’s Affirmative Action Program and monitored employment policies, practices, and department programs to ensure fairness and consistency with the department’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy.

Agudosi previously served as Deputy Director in the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity at the Department of Law and Public Safety, where she was responsible for administering and enforcing the state’s anti-discrimination policy while conducting investigations concerning discrimination and retaliation in the workplace.

Before that, Agudosi served as Supervising Deputy Attorney General and Chief of the Prosecutors Supervision & Coordination Bureau and Chief of the Office of Bias Crime. She was responsible for overseeing county prosecutors, police departments and medical examiners, as well as the prosecution of hate crimes throughout the state. She previously served the same department as Deputy Attorney General in the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor and in the Corruption & Government Integrity Bureau. Ms. Agudosi began her professional career as an Assistant District Attorney with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York. While there, Ms. Agudosi was assigned to a trial bureau where she presented cases before a grand jury and tried both misdemeanor and felony cases.

Ms. Agudosi received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Notre Dame and hold a Juris Doctorate degree from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. She is a member of the Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey, and the New Jersey State Bar Association where she chaired the Minorities in the Profession Section, served  as a member of the Diversity Committee and was a board member for the New Jersey Lawyers Assistance Program. A longstanding member of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens, Ms. Agudosi has been actively involved in the Scholarship and Mentoring Ministries.