The Principal Investigators (Co-PIs) of this project are Dr. Lori Patton Davis and Dr. Nadrea Njoku. You can learn more about their efforts to center and uplift Black women in postsecondary contexts at www.blackgirloncampus.com.
Lori Patton Davis, PhD
Lori Patton Davis is the Heyman Endowed Chair and faculty director of the UCLA Educational Leadership Program at the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies, where she serves as a professor of education. She is best known for her important scholarship on racial and gender equity in education, culture centers on college campuses, girls and women of color in educational and social contexts, and college student development.
Dr. Patton Davis has written extensively about Black women in higher education. She is co-editor of Investing in the Education Success of Black Women and Girls, Critical Perspectives on Black Women in Higher Education and has also co-edited special issues on Black women for the NASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education, and the Journal of Negro Education.
Dr. Patton Davis is also lead author of Student Development in College: Theory, Research, and Practice, the most widely adopted book in higher education graduate degree programs. She also is author of over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and other academic publications.
Nadrea R. Njoku, PhD
Dr. Nadrea R. Njoku is the Assistant Vice President and lead for the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute (FDPRI) at UNCF (United Negro College Fund). There she leads the development and execution of Patterson’s research portfolio, inclusive of longitudinal mixed-method evaluations, organizational data management, and telling the dynamic and evolving story of HBCUs. She has worked across multiple functions of higher education—housing, student affairs, fraternity and sorority affairs, alumni relations and evaluation—in both the PWI and HBCU contexts.
Dr. Njoku is the co-editor of a special issue of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education explores the intersections of race and higher education and highlights the work of emerging scholars in the field of student affairs and higher education. Her publications and scholarly work explore topics that include the constructed campus environments of HBCUs, it’s impact on students’ developing ideas of gender performance, and the multiple constructions of Black womanhood in the postsecondary contexts through an interdisciplinary and arts-based framework. Dr. Njoku is a graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana and holds a master’s degree and doctorate from Indiana University’s School of Education.
Ayana (Yannie) Hardaway, PhD
Dr. Ayana T. Hardaway is a restorative scholar-practitioner and seasoned Grants and Contracts Officer at Stanford University, bringing over 18 years of experience in higher education and a deep commitment to Black feminist scholarship. Her research is grounded in critical qualitative and Black feminist methodologies, focusing on the experiences of Black women and girls in education. Through her work, she critically examines the structural and systemic barriers that shape Black women’s academic and life trajectories, employing Black speculative methodologies to envision alternative futures for Black women in educational and societal contexts. Dr. Hardaway’s scholarship has been published in prominent journals such as the Journal of Postsecondary Student Success, the Journal of African American Women and Girls in Education, and Investing in the Educational Success of Black Women and Girls. Her book, From Crack Mother to Wildflower, Writing to Transgress: The Sankofa Writing Method, is a groundbreaking critical autoethnography that explores the role of Black women-centered networks during the crack era. In this work, she deconstructs the controlling images of the “Bad Crack Mother” and “Crack Baby” myths, challenging dominant narratives that have historically stigmatized Black women. Through the Sankofa Writing Method, she demonstrates how writing can serve as a sacred, transformative practice for reclaiming and reimagining Black women’s stories. She is also an Asa G. Hilliard III and Barbara A. Sizemore Research Fellow.
Francena F.L. Turner, PhD
Dr. Francena F.L. Turner is the CLIR/Melon Fellow and Postdoctoral Associate for Data Curation in African American History and Culture at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). In her current role, she is the project manager & principal interviewer for the Black Experience at the University of Maryland Oral History Project. She is an adjunct lecturer in History at Fayetteville State University.
Dr. Turner is most interested in historical and contemporary issues of equity, agency, and thriving in education, and her research agenda explores histories of Black women’s P-20 education and career trajectories in higher education and Black student organizers and activists at HBCU and PWIs. Her oral history-based dissertation explored the organizing and activism experiences of Black women who attended Fayetteville State University during the Civil Rights/Black Power Era and they ways including women’s narratives expands what we know about this era. She holds a doctorate in History of Education and an Ed.M. in Education Policy Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and she is a graduate of Fayetteville Technical Community College and Fayetteville State University. She is also an Asa G. Hilliard III and Barbara A. Sizemore Research Fellow and a NYU Steinhardt Faculty First Look Scholar.
Dr. Turner’s most recent publications can be found in Paedagogica Historica, Oral History Review, Women, Gender, and Families of Color, and Gender, Work, and Organization.
Ellise A. Smith, M.S.Ed
Ellise Antoinette Smith is from Detroit, Michigan, with a research focus on the experiences of bodies that identify as fat. With an interdisciplinary focus, Smith uses photography (#VisualActivism), podcasting, spoken word poetry, and social media as a catalyst to center these narratives.
As doctoral student in the Urban Education Studies program at IUPUI, Smith dedicates her scholarship to creating celebratory spaces for the marginalized identities that she holds using frameworks such as Black Feminist Thought, Sense of Belonging, Intersectionality, and Critical Race Theory. She aims to ensure the work and narratives around bigger bodies are included in academia while challenging the dominant ideologies around body image acceptance. Smith centers her work within the sector of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as she pulls from her experiences working with first-generation, low-income students, racial equity, and eradicating injustices for underrepresented populations.
Websites: Fatness Fiction: www.fatnessfiction.com | Ellise Smith Photography: www.ellisesmith.weebly.com
Joselyn Parker
Dr. Joselyn Parker recently completed her doctoral program at The Ohio State University where she has taught Equity & Diversity and Social Justice in Education and Urban Teaching and Learning. Parker has received several awards during her time at OSU including: The Dr. Bob’s Diversity Scholarship, The Billy Hill Scholarship for literacy, the Graduate Enrichment Fellowship, as well as The Critical Difference for Women Award which she was awarded for her intersectional scholarship in the fields of Education and Women and Gender Studies.
A self-proclaimed Freedom Dreamer, Parker’s research seeks to disrupt injustices and ignite social change by amplifying the voices, stories and experiences of the most vulnerable through artistic expressions. Parker offers insight into the power and potential of art to push beyond narratives of victimization, discrimination, but rather consider what are essential literacy practices where marginalized groups are also granted liberties to dream.