Associate Professor of Second Language Acquisition 

Department of Modern Languages 

Deitrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences 

Carnegie Mellon University 

Dr. Uju Anya is a university professor and researcher in applied linguistics, critical sociolinguistics, and critical discourse studies primarily examining race, gender, sexual, and social class identities in new language learning through the experiences of African American students. Her other areas of inquiry include applied linguistics as a practice of social justice and translanguaging in world language pedagogy. She currently teaches and conducts research as associate professor of second language acquisition at the Carnegie Mellon University Department of Modern Languages. 

Faculty Member, Cox School of Business, 

Southern Methodist University (SMU) 

Director of Research and Communications SMU Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity 

Executive Director, Action Research Center, Dallas, Texas 

Dr. Candice Bledsoe is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of leadership, innovation, and diversity and inclusion. She is the executive director of the Action Research Center in Dallas, Texas and holds faculty appointments in the Cox School of Business, Simmons School of Education and Hunt Institute of Humanity in the Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University. 

The United Nations honored Dr. Bledsoe with the UN Global Leadership Award for Sustainable Goal 4: Quality Education in 2020 for her tireless efforts to increase access to education and school enrollment rates at all levels, particularly for girls.  She is the recipient of the 2013 SMU Women’s Symposium Profiles of Community Leadership Award. 

Dr. Bledsoe has published many articles and received numerous fellowships including: The National Endowment of the Humanities, the New Leadership Academy at the National Center for Institutional Diversity, University of Michigan, and Boone Texas Project for Human Rights Education. She received her Doctorate in Education from The University of Southern California and holds degrees from Southern Methodist University and Baylor University. 

Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Adult and Higher Education 

Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education 

University of Oklahoma

Kaleb L. Briscoe, Ph.D. received her Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Studies with a concentration in Educational Leadership and Higher Education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She holds a Master of Science in Student Affairs and Higher Education from Indiana State University (ISU) and a Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing from Albany State University (ASU). Before completing her Ph.D. program, she served as the Associate Director of Student Life at the University of Houston-Victoria (UHV), where she supervised a team of student leaders and new professionals. Dr. Briscoe was awarded the ACPA–College Student Educators International Commission for Student Involvement Outstanding Service Award and launched the Commission’s first-ever Mentorship Program. This program advocates for new professionals and graduate students to continue their professional development and education by partnering with seasoned professionals in student affairs. 

Dr. Briscoe’s research problematizes oppressed and marginalized populations within higher education through critical theoretical frameworks and qualitative methodological approaches. Through her scholarship on campus racial climate, she seeks to disrupt whiteness and white supremacy on predominantly white campuses. Her research shapes administrators, specifically university presidents’ responses to race and racism, by challenging their use of anti-Blackness and non-performative rhetoric. Dr. Briscoe is a recent Spencer Foundation grant recipient for a project entitled Resistance or Racism? Unpacking Critical Race Theory Bans in a Sociopolitical Era of Anti-Racism with co-principal investigator Dr. Veronica Jones Baldwin. Dr. Briscoe’s work has been published in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Higher Education Research and Development, Journal of International Students, and Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. 

Dr. Briscoe, who is originally from Woodstock, Georgia, enjoys traveling, spending quality time with family and friends, and doing service endeavors with her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. 

Professor, Mathematics

CSHE Faculty Research Associate

Penn State University 

Dr. Brown is Professor of Mathematics at Penn State University (PSU), after holding research positions at Institut Henri Poincaré, University of California at Berkeley, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Michigan State University, and University of Tokyo. His research has received continuous support from the National Science Foundation since 1999. An award-winning teacher, he coordinates the math component of the Millennium Scholars Program, PSU’s premier undergraduate program aiming to diversify STEM fields. His advocacy for equity and inclusion have been recognized by a Robinson Equal Opportunity Award and TEDx talk on “The Math People Myth.” He serves on the Doctoral Faculty Council of the Math Alliance, the nation’s largest network devoted to diversifying mathematics. An Affiliate at the Institute for Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (QSIDE) and Research Associate in PSU’s Center for the Study of Higher Education, his research now focuses on social justice in the context of STEM education, for which he currently holds two NSF grants and collaborates with colleagues in education, psychology, and quantitative sciences. 

Co-Convenor, Academy for Anti-Racist Leadership

Associate Professor of Counselor Education

CSHE Faculty Research Associate

Penn State University

Dr. Janice Byrd comes to us from Kent State University, where she was assistant professor in the Counselor Education and Supervision program. She earned her Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision from the University of Iowa and an M.Ed. in counselor education (K-12 school counseling) from South Carolina State University. She has experience in K-12 settings (English teacher and school counseling), with the McNair Scholars Program, Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP), TRIO, Upward Bound and others.

Dr. Byrd also has experience working on teams to facilitate campus and community diversity trainings and has spoken on topics related to anti-racist pedagogy, advocacy and equity in school counseling. Using critical epistemologies, her scholarship seeks to situate the lived experiences of students of color within the broader ecological context to systematically examine how their personal, social, academic and career success is interrupted and/or enhanced by school, family, community settings, relationships and policies throughout all stages of the educational pipeline.

Her research areas of inquiry are college and career development of historically marginalized populations; the influence of the intersections of race and gender for Black girls and women on their academic, personal/social, and career development; and culturally responsive and trauma-informed counseling.

She is the graduate student coordinator for the Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender special interest group within AERA, and co-chair of the Advocacy Interest Network within the Association for Counselor Education & Supervision.

Associate Professor of Educational Administration & Human Resource Development

Texas A&M University

Dr. Chayla Haynes Davison is an Associate Professor of Higher Education Administration and past recipient of Texas A&M University’s Robert and Mavis Simmons Faculty Fellowship. She earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Denver and also holds a M.A. in College Student Personnel from Bowling Green State University. Her research centers on critical and inclusive pedagogy with emphasis on college teaching and faculty development, Black women in higher education and critical race theory and intersectionality scholarship and methodologies.

She is co-editor of Interrogating Whiteness and Relinquishing Power: White Faculty’s Commitment to Racial Consciousness in STEM Classrooms (Peter Lang), Race Equity and the Learning Environment: The Global Relevance of Critical and Inclusive Pedagogies in Higher Education (Stylus) and Black Liberation in Higher Education: Considerations for Research and Practice (Taylor Francis).

Her scholarship also appears in the Review of Educational Research, Educational Researcher, the Journal of Higher Education, Teachers College Record, the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, and the Journal of Negro Education. She was the 2020 junior scholar recipient of the Association for the Study of Higher Education’s (ASHE) Council for Ethnic Participation’s Mildred Garcia Award for Exemplary Scholarship. Additionally, the Comparative & International Education Society’s African Diaspora Special Interest Group (CIES ADSIG), an affiliate of the World Education Research Association (WERA), named Dr. Haynes Davison a 2020 Emerging Scholar.

Prior to the professoriate, Dr. Haynes Davison served the higher education and student affairs profession for 15 years, as a former Director of Orientation and Family Programs and Services, Director of Student Affairs and Career Services, and Director of Student Activities.

Associate Professor of Higher Education 

Director of Student Engagement, USC Race and Equity Center 

University of Southern California 

Dr. Royel M. Johnson is Associate Professor of Higher Education with tenure in the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. He is also the inaugural Director of Student Engagement in the USC Race and Equity Center and a faculty member in the Pullias Center for Higher Education. His Ph.D. in higher education and student affairs, with a cognate in race and social policy, is from The Ohio State University. 

A nationally recognized scholar and highly-sought after speaker and consultant, Professor Johnson has translated his expertise on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion for dozens of college campuses, Fortune 500 companies, and other organizations. Indeed, Professor Johnson is committed to improving the material conditions of racially minoritized and other institutionally marginalized groups through evidence-based decision making and organizational change. 

He has more than 40 academic publications including peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Higher Education, Peabody Journal of Education and Teachers College Record; and he has been awarded over $5.1 million in grants and contracts from organizations such as the Spencer Foundation, Institute of Education Sciences, and Department of Health and Human Services. His edited book with Drs. Liliana Garces and Uju Anya, Racial Equity on College Campuses: Connecting Research and Practice, was recently published by SUNY Press and is available where books are sold. 

For his early career achievements, Dr. Johnson was awarded the 2020 Distinguished Young Alumni Award from the University of Illinois. He also received the 2020 Emerging Scholar Award and 2022 Outstanding Contribution to Multicultural Education and Research Award from ACPA—College Educators International. 

Assistant Professor of Higher Education

CSHE Faculty Research Associate

Penn State University

Dr. Wilson Kwamogi Okello (he/him), assistant professor at the Pennsylvania State University, is an artist and interdisciplinary scholar who draws on Black critical theories to advance research on student/early adult development theory. He is also concerned with how Black critical theories might reconfigure understandings of racialized stress and trauma, qualitative inquiry, critical masculinities, and curriculum and pedagogy. He has published over 40 scholarly publications in venues such as the Journal of College Student Development, Race, Ethnicity and Education, and the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Dr. Okello is co-editor of “Trauma-informed practice in student affairs: Multidimensional considerations for care, healing, and wellbeing,” a New Directions for Student Services volume (Wiley Press), and author of a forthcoming text with SUNY Press that explores the potential of centering Blackness in student development theory. Among other early career awards, he received the 2022 Council on Ethnic Participation (CEP) Mildred Garcia Award for Exemplary Scholarship by the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and he was named a 2022 Emerging Scholar by the American College Personnel Association.

Professor, Psychology

Associate Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

CSHE Faculty Research Associate

Penn State University

Dr. Soto is a Professor in the Clinical Science Program at the Pennsylvania State University, where he has been since 2005. He also serves as the current Associate Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within the Psychology Department. Dr. Soto received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004. He completed his internship and postdoctoral training at UCSF/San Francisco General Hospital from 2004-2005.

His teaching, service and scholarship focus on advancing knowledge that is informed by diversity. In particular, his research examines the intersections of culture, health, and emotion, with an emphasis on the study of ethnic minority culture and those experiences associated with ethnic minority status (discrimination, oppression, etc.).

His work has been published in Emotion, the leading journal in emotion research, and other top journals such as Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Anxiety Disorders, and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. He is currently an Associate Editor at Emotion, and on the editorial boards of Psychological Bulletin, and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. His work has been supported by NIH and featured on national public radio and other media outlets throughout the U.S. He has received numerous awards for his work on diversity within academia and is the 2012 recipient of the Charles and Shirley Thomas Award from division 45 and is a former Sherwin Early Career Professor in the Rock Ethics Institute at PSU. Dr. Soto is an active advocate for diversity, social justice and inclusion via his teaching, research and service roles.

Chair and Professor of Higher Education

Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer

University of Connecticut

Frank Tuitt is the University of Connecticut’s Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer and Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs in the NEAG School of Education.  In 2019, he received the National Association of Chief Diversity Officers in Higher Education Individual Leadership Award in recognition of “outstanding contributions to research, administration, practice, advocacy, and/or policy, and whose work informs and advances understanding of diversity and inclusive excellence in higher education.”

Tuitt was a visiting scholar at the Echo Center for Diversity Policy in 2019-2020 at The Hague, Netherlands. He was the inaugural visiting scholar at the Echo Center and delivered lectures, facilitated training, and conducted research in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the Netherlands and to post-secondary institutions in Europe. Tuitt is a coeditor and contributing author of five books including most recently Plantation Politics and Campus Rebellions: Power, Diversity, and the Emancipatory Struggle in Higher Education (SUNY Press).

Director, Academy for Anti-Racist Leadership

Associate Professor of Higher Education

Associate Director, Center for the Study of Higher Education

Program Coordinator, Residential M.Ed. in Higher Education

Penn State University

Dr. LaWanda Ward’s commitment to social justice, equity, and inclusion in higher education is influenced by her family of educators. Her mother, a 1^st grade teacher for almost 30 years, who marched during the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. Ward’s research agenda centers on critically analyzing legal issues in higher education including race-conscious admissions, free speech, and academic freedom.

For over 20 years prior to joining the professoriate, Dr. Ward served as a student affairs educator in various roles. She was introduced to higher education administration as a residence life graduate assistant and later as a residence hall director at Illinois State University and Old Dominion University, respectively. As Director of Pro Bono & Public Interest at her alma mater, Indiana University McKinney School of Law, Dr. Ward coached law students and alumni seeking traditional and non-traditional legal careers. Additionally, she established and maintained productive working relationships with community agencies to ensure law students received rewarding and challenging opportunities to gain pro bono experience.

Previously, Dr. Ward was an Assistant Professor at Ohio University. She earned a PhD in Higher Education and Student Affairs with an Interdisciplinary Minor in Socio-Legal Perspectives on Race & Gender in Higher Education from Indiana University, JD from Indiana University McKinney School of Law, MS in Educational Administration from Old Dominion University, MA in Political Science from Illinois State University, and a BA in Political Science from Murray State University.