The DFW Alliance of Technology and Women presented Dr. Diane McNulty with a Lifetime Achievement Award at its 2021 Women in Tech Summit on Sept. 28.
In more than three decades of service to The University of Texas at Dallas, McNulty began and has built the communications and development departments in the Naveen Jindal School of Management, where she is associate dean of external relations, communications and corporate development. The achievement award recognized those efforts as well as her longtime dedication to empowering women and her service to the alliance.
The alliance is a nonprofit committed to increasing the number of women in leadership and strengthening the pipeline of girls entering technology fields. Membership is open to women and men who encourage women and girls to follow their passion for — and seek careers in — technology.
The summit provided opportunities for collaboration, professional development and networking. Speakers included alumnae Rashmi Mehta Jain, MBA’08, and Aries Webb-Williams, EMBA’08. Jain, chief information officer at Careington International Corporation and winner of a 2020 Dallas Business Journal Minority Business Leader Award, spoke on a panel that discussed “Lessons From The Leaders –Their Stories, Their Choices, Their Wisdom.” Webb-Williams, a software portfolio adviser with SoftwareONE, was a member of a panel that discussed “Workplace Wellness as a Core Business Strategy — Retention, Relevance and ROI.”
‘Not Yet. I’m Not Done.’
DFW ATW President Shanthi Rajaram, president and CEO of Amazech, an IT talent and consulting firm, presented the award to McNulty during the luncheon at the daylong summit, which was held at the Irving Convention Center.
In her thank-you remarks McNulty joked that when she told JSOM Dean Hasan Pirkul about the award, he had remarked, “I guess you know what that means: It’s probably time for you to go.”
But McNulty said she responded, “Not yet. I’m not done.
“So I want to encourage everybody in this audience,” she continued, “and congratulate you on taking a road and making a path for yourselves. And please be sure to reach out to those younger than me and help them along the way to find the right passion to devote their life to.”
“All kidding aside, I congratulate Dr. McNulty on this award,” Pirkul later said. “Her tireless leadership has increased the Jindal School’s visibility, advanced its development and fundraising efforts, and helped secure its prominence as a top-tier teaching and research institution. I could not ask for a better advocate.
“Young women and men will find an excellent role model in her,” he added.
Administrator, Educator, Civic Activist
McNulty’s passions have included starting and growing advertising, marketing, public relations, and community and corporate relations in the Jindal School. She started MANAGEMENT, the Jindal School’s award-winning magazine. She serves as executive editor of it, of Jindal School Now, the dean’s newsletter, and of Inside Jindal School, the school’s online news site. She oversees social media and podcasts, and takes charge of fundraising strategies, the advisory council and special events.
As a faculty member, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses and serves on several faculty committees. McNulty teaches corporate governance and ethics in international business courses. Her research efforts focus on those topics as well the study of executive women and their participation on public corporate boards of directors. In 2019, she co-created with the Alliance for Greater Good a certificate program, Executive Leadership for Minority Women in Nonprofits. Earlier she co-founded Positioning Women for Corporate Boards, a Jindal School program.
A lifelong Dallas resident, McNulty earned master’s and doctoral degrees from UT Dallas, and she is devoted to several civic causes as well as UTD. Her involvement includes many roles in the Washington, D.C., nonpartisan, nonprofit Public Affairs Council as well as on the World Affairs Council of Dallas-Fort Worth, where she this year was elected to its Mallon Circle. She also has served on the 2021 Gala Committee of Tech Titans, the technology association for North Texas. She has for several years been a member of the Texas Business Hall of Fame Foundation Board of Directors, where she is vice president for scholarship and chairs the Scholarship Committee.
Born with a congenital heart defect, McNulty has had special affinity for the American Heart Association of Dallas for more than 30 years. A past member of the association’s board, she was a founding member of the committee that organized “Stiletto Strut,” a fundraiser that benefited women and heart health for the Women’s Guild of the Dallas Division. The association has honored her with numerous recognitions, including a Distinguished Service Award and the Bachendorf Award of Excellence in 2004 and the 2018 Sandi Haddock Community Impact Award for her work to improve women’s health.
Other awards include being chosen for many years — including 2021 — as a Woman’s Mentor by the Dallas Business Journal and being presented with one of DBJ’s Top 25 Women in Business Awards in 2011.
