Dissertation
Governing board dynamics and conditions that support diversifying the college presidency with women of color: a multiple-case study
Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Drexel University
Mar 2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00010897
Abstract
Women of color were, "greatly underrepresented" among college and university presidents (Gagliardi et al., 2017) and, six years later, continued to be so, even with small gains (Melidona et al., 2023). Governing boards in higher education are responsible for hiring the institution's president. These governing boards, who are made up of mostly White men, have typically hired other White men to lead institutions. By contrast, this qualitative, multiple-case study explored the conditions and the dynamics under which governing boards hired women of color as presidents after a history of hiring only White men. Three research questions guided this story: 1) How do governing board members who have hired a woman of color as a college or university president design the search and selection process? 2) How do governing board members address implicit attitudes or explicit concerns related to race, ethnicity, and gender before and during the search and selection process? 3) How do group dynamics and conditions affect the governing board members and their surrogates as they prepared for and engaged in the decision to hire a woman of color in a presidential role? Governing board members and a board surrogate at two institutions – a community college and a public university – shared their search and selection processes, offered insights about presidential qualifications, attitudes about gender, race and ethnicity, and described the conditions and dynamics that supported the hiring decisions. The study expands knowledge about governing boards in higher education, the presidential search and selection process, and diversity, equity and inclusion as an institutional value and qualification.
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Details
- Title
- Governing board dynamics and conditions that support diversifying the college presidency with women of color
- Creators
- Carla J. Kimbrough
- Contributors
- Sarah P. Ulrich (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- xv pages, 273 unnumbered pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- School of Education (1997-2026); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991022042973304721