ASA President Adia Harvey Wingfield  announced on November 1 the appointment of Dr. Heather Washington as Executive Director of the American Sociological Association. Heather has been serving as Interim Executive Director since May 2024. In August, the Finance Committee unanimously recommended Heather for appointment to Executive Director, and in October, ASA Council enthusiastically and unanimously voted to appoint her to the position.

Heather has been an integral part of ASA since 2021. She began her career at ASA as Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), where she directed the Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) and led efforts to advance ASA’s DEI goals. Most recently, Heather served as ASA Deputy Director, a role in which she continued to lead the association’s DEI efforts, while also serving as the principal investigator on two large grants: The National Science Foundation-funded ASA Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant and the William T. Grant Foundation-funded project on recognizing and rewarding community-engaged scholarship in tenure and promotion.

Heather holds a PhD and MA in sociology from The Ohio State University. Prior to joining ASA staff, she was an associate professor of sociology with tenure and an accomplished researcher and teacher. Heather is a Fellow of the ASA MFP (Cohort 38), a recipient of the American Society of Criminology minority fellowship, and a graduate of the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. In 2018, she was selected as an Emerging Scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, a significant honor recognizing professors who have distinguished themselves in their various academic disciplines and who are working to make our society more equitable and just.