Rising to Full Professor

Academe has made little progress in hiring and advancing faculty of color.

Through the narratives of full professors of color, this book aims to make visible their journeys -- beset with lack of criteria transparency, marginalization, discouragement, and discrimination on the way to success -- to provide insights for junior and mid-level scholars as they negotiate their pathways to full professorship.

This book offers readers a unique, micro-and macroscopic window into the lived experiences of individuals who represent a multitude of social, ethnic and cultural identities, disciplinary domains, academic and professional credentials, and socialization experiences. They share their doubts and fears as they began their applications, the contradictory advice they received, who they consulted for guidance, some of the indelible costs of the experience and, when they encountered it, how they dealt with initial rejection.

In describing their persistence and success, the contributors reflect on the rewards of the position and the opportunities it offers to play influential decision-making roles and become agents of change, shifting institutional culture, values, and practices.

Beyond filling a gap in the literature and research on, and promotion to, this position, this book uniquely addresses the experiences of women and men faculty of color, raising broad implications for how higher education recruits, evaluates, and rewards faculty work, as well as the broader context of racial and social institutional goals and outcomes.

This book is intended for several audiences. First, for faculty of color who aspire to the rank of full professor. Second, for faculty in general, including allies who work tirelessly for social justice, to dismantle white supremacy, racism, sexism, and the range of discriminatory practices Third, for administrators in senior leadership positions to make them aware of the inequitable path to full professorship and the gross underrepresentation of faculty of color at that rank whose experiences and expertise are now more than ever needed as student demographics are changing.

Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner is professor emerita for the doctorate in educational leadership program at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS), and Lincoln professor emerita of Higher Education and Ethics at Arizona State University (ASU).

At CSUS, Turner served as interim dean for the College of Education. Prior to her appointment at ASU, she was Professor of Educational Policy & Administration at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities where she co-founded the national Keeping our Faculties of Color Symposium. She is also past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). Her research and teaching interests include faculty gender and racial/ethnic diversity, leadership and organizational change, and the use of qualitative methods for policy research. Her publications, particularly Faculty of Color in Academe: Bittersweet Success (with Myers, Jr.), Diversifying the Faculty: A Guidebook for Search Committees, and Women of Color in Academe: Living with Multiple Marginality advanced the dialogue on faculty gender and racial/ethnic diversity among scholars and practitioners. Dr. Turner has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Higher Education, The Review of Higher Education, and the Journal of Hispanic Higher Education. She is one of the founding editorial advisory board members for the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education and the Journal of Minority Achievement, Creativity, and Leadership. Her numerous recognitions include the University of California, Davis (UCD) School of Education Distinguished Alumna Award, Sacramento State’s University-Wide Faculty Award for Research and Creative Activity, the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Council on Ethnic Participation Mildred Garcia Senior Scholar Award, and the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Scholars of Color in Education Career Contribution Award. Dr. Turner currently serves on the UCD School of Education Dean’s Board of Advisors and was honored to present their 2018 graduation keynote address. (See: https://video.ucdavis.edu/media/2018+School+of+Education+Keynote+-+Carolyn+Turner+-+June+13%2C+2018/.... Turner received her undergraduate degree in History and her master’s degree in Educational Psychology from the University of California, Davis. She received her Ph.D. in Administration and Policy Analysis from the Stanford University School of Education.

Christine A. Stanley is a Regents professor, professor of higher education, holder of the Ruth Harrington Endowed Chair for Educational Leadership, and vice president and associate provost for diversity emerita in the School of Education and Human Development at Texas A&M University. [She has served the university as vice president and associate provost for diversity, acting vice provost for academic affairs, interim associate provost for undergraduate studies, executive associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Education and Human Development, and associate dean of faculties. She provided leadership for the TAMU National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE Scholar Program and served on the presidential task force to develop and write the first Standards of Professional Practice for Chief Diversity Officers, commissioned by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE).

A past president of the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education, she is a recipient of numerous university and national awards including the Outstanding Staff Award from The Ohio State University, TAMU Women’s Faculty Network (WFN) Award for Mentoring, the TAMU Association of Former Students (AFS) Distinguished Achievement Award for Graduate Mentoring, the Outstanding New Faculty Award from the College of Education Development Council, the Mildred Garcia Award for Exemplary Scholarship for a Senior-Practitioner Scholar from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), and two awards from the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education–the Robert Pierleoni Spirit of POD Award for leadership efforts in diversity and, the named Christine A. Stanley Award for Diversity and Inclusion Research in Educational Development.

She teaches administration of higher education, college teaching, diversity and social justice in higher education, and professional development in higher education. Dr. Stanley has a passion for how colleges and universities function as organizational systems. Institutional climate for teaching and learning and the climate for minoritized faculty and students remain salient as research goals. She developed these interests in graduate school at Texas A&M from her experiences as a Black woman from Jamaica, and with the support of mentors who encouraged and supported her to find answers to the systemic social and cultural disparities in higher education institutions. In March 2019, she received the Frank W. Hale Distinguished Service Award for her leadership efforts in diversity from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education and, in 2021 the Mentoring Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). Dr. Stanley has edited several books and peer-reviewed publications, including, Faculty of Color: Teaching in Predominantly White Colleges and Universities. Her research focuses on faculty professional development, administrator development, and the experiences of minoritized faculty in predominantly White colleges and universities. Her current research activities include working with colleagues in the College of Engineering, along with system institutions Prairie View A&M University, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and Texas A&M International to study the effects of undergraduate research mentoring on the persistence and retention of African American and Hispanic students in engineering through the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Program (LSAMP). She has consulted on faculty development and diversity issues in the United States, Armenia, Canada, China, Mexico, and South Africa.

Dr. Stanley is a native of Jamaica, The West Indies and holds a B.Sc. Degree in Biology (cum laude) from Prairie View A&M University, a M.Sc. Degree in Zoology from Texas A&M University, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from Texas A&M University.