Philomena Johanna Maria Essed (born Utrecht, 1955) is a professor of Critical Race, Gender and Leadership Studies at Antioch University Yellow Springs, Ohio.

From the age of fifteen she lived in Nijmegen, until moving in 1974 to Amsterdam.

[1] In 1983, Essed passed her doctoral exams in cultural anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, and received her PhD cum laude in the social sciences in 1990 under the supervision of Chris Mullard.

She was a member of the Dutch Tijdelijke Expertise Commissie Emancipatie in het Nieuwe Adviesstelsel (Temporary Expert Committee on Emancipation in the New Advisory System) from 1998 to 2001, appointed by the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment.

[4] She served as a deputy member of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights (College voor de Rechten van de Mens) from 2004 to 2016.