In recent years, black women have begun to take more prominent university leadership roles at predominantly white institutions. Unfortunately, their progress is relatively slow, and their experiences have not garnered much historical attention in the university leadership literature. Hence, the purpose of this study is to describe the leadership resilience experiences of black women before and after becoming a university dean. The conceptual framework includes Black Feminist Thought and Constructivist Self-Development Theory which guide the two central research questions, how do black women describe their leadership resilience experiences before becoming a dean? And how do black women describe their leadership resilience experiences after becoming a dean? A qualitative methodology with a narrative study design encouraged eight black women university deans in the Southern United States to describe their experiences. The Resilience at Work (R@W) scales identified the participants who currently exhibited resilience in their workplace. Two data collection techniques, semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups increased the validity of the results. The study found that most participants described their leadership resilience experiences as opportunities to know yourself, know your purpose, strive for personal growth, and overcome invalidation. Participants also shared recommendations for universities to effectively build and maintain a leadership culture beneficial to black women's leadership resilience. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]