Dear Department Chair: Letters from Black Women Leaders to the Next Generation

Practical and candid, this book offers actionable steps to help Black women leaders create meaningful success. The reflections and recommendations of the contributors forge a critical and transformative analysis of race, gender, and higher education leadership. With insights from humanities, social sciences, art, and STEM, this essential resource helps to redefine the academy to meet the challenges of the future. Dear Department Chair is comprised of personal letters from prominent Black women department chairs, deans, vice provosts, and university presidents, addressed to current and future Black women academic professionals, and offers a rich source of peer mentorship and professional development. These letters emerged from Chair at the Table, a research collective and peer-mentoring network of current and former Black women department chairs at colleges and universities across the U.S. and Canada. The collective’s works, including this volume, serve as tools for faculty interested in administration, current chairs seeking mentorship, and upper-level administrators working to diversify their ranks.

Stephanie Y. Evans, PhD, is Full Professor in the Institute for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and affiliate faculty of the Department of Africana Studies at Georgia State University. She served twelve consecutive years as department chair, from 2010-22. Her research and previously published works focus on Black women’s intellectual history, memoirs, and mental health. She is the Founder and Co-Chair of the Chair at the Table Research Collective.

Stephanie G. Adams, PhD, is Dean of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas and served as President of the American Society for Engineering Education in 2019-20. Her research in broadening participation, team effectiveness, and quality control have been funded by the National Science Foundation for almost two decades and has been published widely in related scholarly journals.

Stephanie Shonekan, PhD, is Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research and publications investigate race, identity, African American music, and movements of resistance. She was a founding co-director of the Michael A. Middleton Center for Race, Citizenship, and Justice at the University of Missouri, Columbia.