Ten years ago, a chief diversity officer or vice president of diversity was almost unheard of, but today about one in five Fortune 1000 companies have diversity managers, according to DiversityInc cofounder Luke Visconti.

There are no hard or fast qualifications for the job, diversity managers and consultants agree. Most have a background in human resources, says AstraZeneca senior director of diversity Orlando Ceaser. However, Ceaser's own training lies in sales and marketing, Wyeth vice president of diversity Daphne Mobley is a veterinarian and scientist by training, and Case Western Reserve University faculty diversity officer Beth McGee is an associate professor of theater and dance.

Having the experience and training most valued by the culture in which they wish to work will help a diversity manager gain acceptance more quickly from that culture, says Damon Williams, assistant vice provost at the University of Connecticut. "For corporations, that often means experience in line management, maybe an MBA or JD, while on the higher education side that means a tenured faculty member," he explains.

A day in the life of a diversity manager can be extraordinarily diverse in itself. "You have to be able to talk with students one morning, the faculty in the afternoon, have dinner with corporate executives interested in making donations around diversity issues, and then the next morning talk with a nonprofit or an elementary school or a hospital. It takes you a lot of places," Williams says.

Along with having fundamental management skills such as communication expertise, diversity managers should be knowledgeable about diversity, "what it is and is not, how it influences behavior on an individual and team level, how to help people deal with biases and prejudices better. The job is about changing systems and not just training people," says Anita Rowe, a partner in Los Angeles diversity consulting firm Gardenswartz & Rowe.

A number of colleges now offer courses in diversity management, and organizations such as the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research and the Society for Human Resource Management offer seminars and training in the subject. At such events, one can, for instance, learn more about equal opportunity, affirmative action, discrimination, and harassment law, says McGee.

For roughly two out of three employers, diversity is the responsibility of the human resources department, according to a survey of 3,100 senior human resources executives by Novations Group, a professional services firm headquartered in Boston. For 1.5% of employers surveyed, diversity falls under the legal department. "If your diversity initiative reports to corporate counsel, then it's probably designed to keep you out of lawsuits. As the whole diversity movement got underway in the late 1970s, most diversity initiatives reported through the office of general counsel. It's a good thing it's true in only 1 percent of cases now," says Verna Ford, an executive consultant with Novations.

For 12% of firms, the survey found that diversity is an independent department. "The most progressive companies have a chief diversity officer who does not report to human resources, but directly to the CEO. It's a recent trend over the last five years," Visconti says. But the number of departments devoted exclusively to diversity has dropped recently because organizations in general are downsizing, Ford notes. Increasingly, the role of diversity manager is now one of many functions a person might serve, as opposed to his or her whole job.

Challenges diversity managers may face include the slow pace of change in large organizations, Mobley says. It can be "a high-burnout job, because it feels way too big," Williams says.

Moreover, the discrimination and harassment complaints diversity managers can get drawn into "can be very messy, and people tend to feel rightfully upset on both sides. That's challenging," McGee says.

The most satisfied diversity managers work in organizations where leaders really hold the rest of the institution accountable for the success of diversity initiatives, "where the diversity directors can set goals that are adhered to. Diversity managers who are figureheads that have no staff or budgets are unhappy just as any other manager would be," Visconti says.