Washington People: Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo

When Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo is not helping students apply for competitive fellowships or developing postgraduate and pre-professional resources in her Cupples II office, she is lecturing in the Department of African and African American Studies (AFAS).

When she is not guiding the student-run Black Anthology theater production, she is advising the African Students Association.

And when she is not mentoring undergraduate researchers in the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, she is co-hosting dinners for residents of Park/Mudd Residential College on the South 40, where her husband, El Hadji Samba Diallo, a senior lecturer in AFAS, is a faculty fellow.

“Advising students and running the postgraduate program uses a very particular part of my brain. But I’m also a creative person, so working with organizations, planning events and helping out at my kids’ school — those are the fun things that make the other things happen,” said Toliver-Diallo, who serves as senior assistant dean of advising, a lecturer in AFAS, in Arts & Sciences, and director of the Senegal Summer Program. 

Originally from Tupelo, Miss., Toliver-Diallo first stepped foot on the WashU campus after her mother accepted a position at what’s now WashU Libraries. As a teenager, Toliver-Diallo would go to Thurtene Carnival with friends and hear from speakers such as poet and activist Maya Angelou at Assembly Series events. 

She also did small research projects for AFAS and got to know some of the faculty. Those formative experiences led her to study history as an undergraduate at Spelman College and, later, as a PhD student at Stanford University. 

“Having the opportunity to do that kind of research when I was young changed how I saw my life,” she said.  

After a stint as postdoctoral fellow at WashU and jobs in New York City and Paris, she returned to campus, splitting her time between AFAS and the dean’s office. Those roles gave her the opportunity to support students the way that she felt supported as an undergraduate. 

“I enjoyed college. I felt supported. I felt heard. I had difficult conversations where I had to challenge my sense of self and figure out who I wanted to be in the world. I think it’s a really magical time,” Toliver-Diallo said. “I wanted to be part of that for students, making sure there’s somebody who they can turn to if they have questions about what’s next or they want to brainstorm opportunities and possibilities.”

Maya Phelps, AB ’24, worked closely with Toliver-Diallo when she was an undergraduate, serving on the executive board of Black Anthology, studying abroad in Senegal, participating in the African Students Association Fashion Show and conducting research as a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow.

“Dean Diallo is an actualizer of the theories that you learn in Black studies. She is invested in Black students and practices Black studies as an administrator and faculty member,” said Phelps, who majored in AFAS and in educational studies in Arts & Sciences. “She has been in so many areas that Black students are engaged, facilitating positive Black community development and protecting those spaces.

“After graduating, Dean Diallo wrote me a letter and said, ‘I knew you would be a force in academia since I met you, and I hope you will continue using your skills and sharing with others.’ That’s the type of positive, validating, inspiring messaging she has given me since I was 18.” 

Toliver-Diallo recently helped stage the 33rd annual Black Anthology, WashU’s longest-running cultural production, and the African Students Association Fashion Show, an annual celebration of African culture. 

Now she is focused on the African Film Festival, which she founded at WashU in fall 2005. This year’s event runs March 28-30 in Brown Hall. Admission is free.

The first iteration of the festival featured a traveling series from the African Film Festival in New York.

“I felt like the best way to talk and think about Africa was through visual representation,” Toliver-Diallo said. “Nobody knew what to expect, but that first weekend in St. Louis was packed — we didn’t have seats left. There was a need, interest and desire from the region, not just campus.”

Now in its 19th year, the festival spotlights African creatives, provides a forum to discuss African issues and highlights the diversity of the continent. 

“I think it goes a long way in creating mutual understanding. Being able to introduce places other than the U.S. and Europe to students at a younger age is really important in changing how we see people and culture,” said Toliver-Diallo, who also helps coordinate filmmakers’ visits to St. Louis Public Schools after the festival.

By name and by story

Clara McLeod, earth and planetary sciences librarian for WashU Libraries, expressed pride in Toliver-Diallo’s growth as an advocate and a mentor. She and her husband, the late James McLeod, vice chancellor for students and dean of Arts & Sciences, met Toliver-Diallo when she was a teenager. Dean McLeod had encouraged faculty and staff members of the university to know every student “by name and by story” — a charge Toliver-Diallo meets every day. 

“It’s admirable to have someone at a university who not only brings their talents, but also helps others bring their talents along with them,” Clara McLeod said. “She has always been a person who has been able to rise to the occasion, and I think you can see that in her professional growth as a dean here at the university. The things she has continually promoted and the things that she has established as an innovator show her commitment to students and to their development. In that way, she reminds me somewhat of my husband.”

Toliver-Diallo brings that same passion to her work in the St. Louis community. She runs youth programming focused on leadership development, college preparation and Black history and culture as co-chair of the Educational Development Committee for the Saint Louis Metropolitan Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc., a historically Black sorority. In addition, she serves on the boards of the Foster & Adoptive Care Coalition and of Cinema St. Louis.

“My mom very much was, and still is, really active in her community. My grandparents were, too,” Toliver-Diallo said. “You want to make the world a little bit better than you found it. Sometimes, it’s a small act that can really make a difference.”