About Walter L Fields

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Walter A.H.L. Fields, Jr. is a native of Hackensack, New Jersey and has been a social justice advocate since childhood. In elementary school he penned letters to sitting presidents of the United States to convey his concerns. During middle school he served as crew chief for an innovative television station for the local Board of Education (WHBE-TV) and was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. His early training as a youth leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (A.M.E.Z.) Church also strengthened his cultural awareness and developed his social consciousness. He began attending city council meetings in his hometown to speak out on issues when he was twelve years old. The next year, the city’s mayor made Walter the youngest appointee to a city board in his hometown’s history, naming him to the Youth Guidance Council that oversaw children and youth programming, and juvenile justice concerns. This early experience propelled him to a career in journalism and public policy that has extended over three decades.

Walter has been a consultant and advisor to candidates and elected officials across the political spectrum, and for many years was the only independently registered Black lobbyist in New Jersey. He has worked across communications mediums – television, radio, and the Internet – as a commentator, journalist, and publisher. His work in journalism has earned him awards from the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists, Garden State Association of Black Journalists, and the New York City Deadline Club. Walter has been involved in projects internationally in Japan, South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, and the United Kingdom. During his career he has served as an executive in the private and public sectors and spent seven years as an officer and Board Member of the New Jersey NAACP and New Jersey Public Policy Research Institute.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Morgan State University, a master’s degree in public administration from the Wagner Graduate School at New York University (NYU), where he was a Patricia Roberts Harris Fellow, and a master’s degree from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow. 

Throughout his career he has been an advocate for education equity, and it is that issue that led him to help conceive the National Center for the Elimination of Educational Disparities (NCEED) at his alma mater, Morgan State University, where he now oversees the family engagement and public policy portfolio. His work aligns with his research focus on Black fathers as a doctoral student in the Applied Sociology and Social Justice Ph.D. program at the university.