The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the lived experiences of Muslim professionals in U.S. workplaces with varying levels of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. The research, conducted through a basic qualitative approach with twenty participants, delved into the personal and professional narratives of these…

LGBTQ rights have progressed tremendously in recent times, not long ago LGBTQ individuals could be arrested simply for being themselves. Though many rights have been won, the fight for equity continues. This is especially true in the field of education, many think of higher education as a pathway to equity, but in reality it can serve to solidify…

The purpose of this study was to examine sustainability policies and practices at community colleges. A social-constructivist worldview guided my exploratory qualitative study that targeted nine sustainability professionals at eight community colleges with enrollment under 10,000 in the midwestern region of the United States. I relied on the…

Generation Z, born between 1996 and 2010, are the most recent generation to enter counselor training programs, furnished with beliefs, values, lived experiences, and cultural identity (Seemiller & Grace, 2016). Interpersonal, intrapersonal, and sociological systems can profoundly affect the development of a core identity; in this case, the…

Most research on Student Affairs practices is centered around student engagement and support; however, this qualitative study focuses on the Student Affairs professionals who support college students. Specifically, this dissertation focuses on the intersectionality of race and religion and how these Student Affairs professionals are able to engage…

The U.S. college presidency remains predominantly white and male. However, trend data over the past several decades have documented increased diversity by race, gender, and race and gender (Green, 1988; Melidona et al., 2023). Still, LGBTQ+ college leadership has not been included in instrumentation resulting in a paucity of literature, with only…

This qualitative research study used an interpretivist approach to examine the following research questions: (a) Do Black students experience intersectionality between their racial and academic identities in Catholic institutions of higher education? (b) Do student academic pathways promote their racial identity? (c) For Black students, do racial…

This qualitative study examines the lived experiences of Black women in higher education executive leadership. The study examines how gendered racial stereotypes contribute to the barriers faced by Black women in reaching executive leadership positions in academia using an ethnographic methodology. Black female executive leaders in higher…

This inductive study examined the intersectional experience within research collaborations of tenure-track faculty who are both first-generation college graduate students and from racial and ethnic groups (as defined in the United States) that are underrepresented in STEM fields (as defined by the National Science Foundation). I interviewed twelve…

Knowledge development, application, and refinement are essential parts of students' reading. One way to observe how students use their knowledge as they read is through talk. Studies routinely indicate that though reading is a social endeavor, teachers spend most of the allotted instructional time talking or using discourse patterns that do not…

Women today are completing their undergraduate studies and entering careers during a time of shifting values, systemic barriers, and complex social environments. Undergraduate leadership development may positively influence women's leadership self-concept, which includes the incorporation of their intersectional social identities with their sense…

Cummins (2018) argued that "emergent bilingual students struggle, often unsuccessfully, to escape from the externally imposed identity cocoon within which they find themselves" (p. x). This struggle leads to negative views and deficit thinking approaches to educating these students. In today's educational context, meeting the cognitive…

United States Representative Maxine Waters made the phrase "reclaiming my time'' famous in the wake of explosive U.S. political debates, sparking workplace misogyny that Black women experience often in order to belittle or devalue them simply based on the color of their skin. The cultural genealogy of Black womanhood has been attributed to…

The cross-racial collaborations of Black women and white individuals in the academy are fraught and complex, as their livelihoods are connected to larger socio-political structures and intersecting systems of oppression, namely race and gender (Crenshaw, 1989, 1990). In this study, I engaged in the research alongside three Black women, two white…

There is a lack of information regarding the motivational experiences of Arab women undergraduate students in STEM fields in the US and the factors that contribute to their engagement and persistence in this field. This is because of their categorization as white on census documents, which renders them invisible. Research has shown that…