R. Fenimore Fisher serves as Deputy Commissioner, Chief Diversity & EEO Officer for the City of New York.  He is leading the design and implementation of strategies to position the City as a global leader in innovative and inclusive workplace practices. As a source of guidance and measurement for forty mayoral agencies, employing approximately 150,000 employees, Fisher applies years of experience as a change agent in both private and non-profit sectors. 

Prior to his appointment, Fisher served as the Managing Partner of the R. Fenimore Fisher Group, LLC, a global diversity and inclusion consulting and alternative dispute resolution firm. A tenacious change agent, Fisher applies an approach based upon the following areas: cultural competence, workplace engagement, workforce metrics, alternative dispute resolution and labor, vendor and community relations. Fisher previously served as Vice President of Diversity Initiatives and Analysis for Walmart. He held responsibility for the company’s diversity goals program for over 50,000 members of management and employment analysis/diversity metrics for the company’s U.S. based workforce of more than 1.3 million associates.

An attorney by training, Fisher developed a focus in the area of alternative dispute resolution and diversity best practices while serving as the Executive Director for the Rainbow/PUSH Wall-Street Project, a civil rights organization founded by the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr. He spent the initial years of his career monitoring the employment and supplier diversity practices of corporate America. He is a member of the National Leadership Council for GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) as well as member of the Corporate Advisory Council for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.  He is a past recipient of the Founders Award from the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund for dedicated community service. Fisher is a member of the Intermezzo Society of the New York Philharmonic, a patron of the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Fisher holds a B.S. in Economics from Louisiana State University, a Juris Doctorate from Ohio Northern University and a labor mediation certification from the School of Labor and Industrial Relations at Cornell.