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In previous anniversary editions, this publication has featured accomplished and established higher education leaders of note. This time, we feature 25 up-and-coming leaders, many of whom are carrying the diversity mantle forward in an avowed commitment to progress. Narrowing the field of great academicians and advocates to just 25 was no easy task! Although this should not be construed as an exhaustive list, please allow us to introduce you to 25 people, in alphabetical order, we expect to see more of.

Dr. Danielle Allen

Princeton University Political theorist Allen is the UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. She was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and is a former dean at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Frances Contreras University of Washington Contreras, an assistant professor, researches issues of equity and access for underrepresented students in the education pipeline. Contreras also serves on the boards of the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, LEAP, and the Chicana/Latina Foundation.

Dr. Michelle Asha Cooper Institute for Higher Education Policy Cooper, president of IHEP, directs some of the most respected professionals in the public policy and research fields to develop new ideas and approaches to assist low-income and minority students in gaining access to and experience success in postsecondary education.

Angelique Eagle- Woman University of Idaho EagleWoman, associate professor of law at the University of Idaho, has received the University of Kansas’ Center for Indigenous Nation’s Crystal Eagle Award for showing leadership and dedication toward helping community members and students within indigenous communities. EagleWoman has served several terms as a board member of the National Native American Bar Association.

Dr. Marybeth Gasman The University of Pennsylvania Nearly every major higher education news publication has sought the expertise of Gasman, associate professor of higher education, on issues concerning historically Black colleges and universities. Gasman is the author of several books, including Envisioning Black Colleges: A History of the United Negro College Fund.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell Princeton University A highly-sought-after expert, Harris- Lacewell, associate professor of politics and African-American studies, is the author of the book, Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought. She is currently at work on a new book: Sister Citizen: A Text For Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Politics When Being Strong Wasn’t Enough.

Dr. Marc Lamont Hill Columbia University Hill emerged as a popular political pundit during the presidential election season of 2008. Hill leaves Temple University this fall to join the faculty of Columbia University as associate professor of education and anthropology. Hill started a literacy project that uses hip-hop culture to increase school engagement and reading skills of school-aged youth.

Dr. Ricky L. Jones University of Louisville Jones, an associate professor of Pan- African studies at the University of Louisville, exposed the persistence of hazing among members of Black Greek letter organizations in the book Black Haze. Jones is working on two more books: The Second Side of the Story: In Partial Defense of Black Men in Their Sometimes Troubled Relationships with Black Women and Letters to My Father: Reflections of a Parentless Child.

Neal Katyal Georgetown University Katyal, a professor of law at Georgetown University, is the lead attorney in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, a federal challenge to the military tribunals set up by President George W. Bush at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In 2000, Katyal served as co-counsel for Vice President Al Gore in the U.S. Supreme Court case Bush v. Palm Beach Canvassing Board, which challenged the Florida voting election system.

Dr. Walter Kimbrough Philander Smith College Kimbrough is cultivating a new generation of academically accomplished and socially c o n s c i o u s African-American students as president at his institution. He assumed the helm of Philander Smith in 2004 and continues to confront the many challenges facing historically Black colleges while working to fix them.

Melissa Lazarín Center for American Progress Lazarín works with national advocacy organizations and congressional offices to enhance educational opportunities for children in federal policy and legislation. Prior to joining the center as associate director of education policy, she served as director of education policy at First Focus, an advocacy organization where she advanced federal legislation related to high school reform and early childhood education.

Goodwin Liu University of California, Berkeley Liu, co-director of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity, a think tank on civil rights law at UC Berkeley, and a professor of law, won the Education Law Association’s Steven S. Goldberg Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Education Law in 2007. In 2009, Liu won the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award.

Dr. Christopher J. Metzler Georgetown University Metzler is associate dean of human resources for the Masters of Professional Studies Program at Georgetown University and is a political analyst and advocate for diversity at higher institutions and global organizations. Metzler previously directed the diversity studies program at Cornell University where he created the nation’s first certification program for diversity professionals.

Spencer Overton The George Washington University Overton, professor of law at The George Washington University Law School, specializes in the law of democracy. He currently serves on the boards of Common Cause and the American Constitution Society. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Jamestown Project at Yale University, a nonpartisan organization articulating new ideas for enriching American democracy.

Dr. Victor Saenz The University of Texas at Austin Saenz was the research manager for the cooperative Institutional Research Program at the University of California, Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute coordinating several national data collection efforts and studies of college students, before joining the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin. Saenz’s research chronicles the educational benefits of racial diversity on college campuses, desegregation issues and access and retention issues for Hispanic students.

Hector Sanchez

Global Exchange Sanchez has worked in education, government and nonprofit organizations and has more than 10 years of policy, research and community experience. Prior to joining Global Exchange this year as policy education coordinator, Sanchez worked at Education Trust where he created the Latino initiative to improve public education for the immigrant and Hispanic community.

Dr. Joseph Seabrooks Metropolitan Community College Seabrooks, 37, recently appointed president of MCC’s Blue River Campus in Kansas, is one of the youngest community college presidents in the country. Previously, he served as an assistant vice chancellor at the University of Arkansas. He works to recruit younger scholars for leadership positions at community colleges.

Dr. Robert Teranishi New York University Teranishi is co-director for the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education. Teranishi’s research on Asian American stereotypes and the stratification of college opportunity and the social mobility of racial and ethnic minorities in American society has been widely published.

Dr. Anton Treuer Bemidji State University Treuer recently received a national endowment for humanities grant as well as a Guggenheim fellowship in 2008 to continue his work documenting the Ojibwe language. Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe language and oral tradition, wrote the first grammar book for the Ojibwe language and Living Language: Ojibwe Tales and Oral Histories.

Dr. Daniel Wildcat Haskell Indian Nations University Wildcat, director of the American Indian Studies Program, is known for his efforts to intertwine STEM discipline with traditional knowledge. A member of the Muscogee tribe, Wildcat helped form a partnership between Haskell and the Hazardous Substance Research Center at Kansas State University to create the Haskell Environmental Research Center. Dr. Mathew Williams The Fund for Theological Education As a recruiter and doctoral programs associate for the Fund for Theological Education in Atlanta, Williams leads fellowship programs that support emerging scholars from underrepresented racial groups pursuing doctorates in religion and theology. His programs have a 98 percent retention rate, and more than 75 percent of these students have secured faculty positions.

Dr. Rhonda Williams Case Western Reserve University Williams, an associate professor of history, was named a “Top Young Historian” by the History News Network and appointed director of Case Western’s social justice strategic alliance by the university’s president. Williams is also the author of The Politics of Public Housing: Black Women’s Struggles Against Urban Inequality.

Dr. Linda Trinh Vo University of California, Irvine Vo is an associate professor and chair of the Asian American studies program as well as a board member for Southeast Asian Archive, a collection of documents on the experiences of Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese Americans. She is also author of Mobilizing an Asian American Community.

Dr. Cynthia E. Winston Howard University Winston serves as an assistant professor of psychology and associate director of the Center for Applied High Performance Computing in the School of Engineering, Computer Science and Architecture. She has been awarded several awards including the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Professor Fellowship by Brown University and the National Science Foundation’s Early CAREER Award.

Jan Yoshiwara Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges Yoshiwara, director of education services, helped the board conduct comprehensive research of the working age, low-skill adult student population. The research persuaded the state legislature to increase funding for existing programs.



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