Dr. Roshaunda Breeden
When Breeden first arrived on campus, she was searching for a sense of belonging and found that and more as she navigated toward a calling to transform student affairs, advance equity, and reimagine the relationship between universities and Black communities.
“It feels like a dream come true,” says Breeden, who is an assistant professor of higher education opportunity, equity, and justice at NC State. “When I was a freshman in Lee Hall, I never thought in my wildest dreams as a low-income person, first-generation college student, Black woman, that I would years later become a faculty member on the campus.”
While originally unplanned, Breeden’s introduction to student affairs came through the Multicultural Student Affairs Office and the African American Cultural Center, where she met mentors who would guide her trajectory in higher education. Encouragement from these mentors led her to pursue a master’s degree in College Student Affairs Administration at the University of Georgia (UGA), which set the foundation for her career dedicated to student advocacy.
After receiving her master’s, Breeden worked in student affairs at Spelman College, North Carolina Central University (NCCU), and NC State. In these roles, she soon recognized a larger issue—many of the systemic challenges that her students faced could not be solved through one-on-one advising alone. Determined to address these barriers, she returned to UGA to pursue a doctorate, shifting her focus to policy change.
“When I think about policy, I think about some of the basic things like ‘Who has access to campus? Who has access to resources? How can Black folks, in various positions across campus, get access to courses and professional development without having to seek permission from someone,’” ask Breeden.
Breeden’s research is personal. She grew up immersed on a college campus—her grandfather was a custodian at Winston Salem State University, where her mother later earned her degree.
“My mom pretty much grew up on that campus, and because she grew up on that campus, once she had me, I then grew up on that campus,” Breeden remembers. “I had notebooks and sweatshirts, but also participated in programs all the time… Even though I didn’t go to Winston Salem State, they taught me how to apply to other colleges while I was there, so that showed me what our campuses had the possibility of doing.”
But not all college campuses foster that same accessibility. Breeden recalls a pivotal moment during her time at UGA that helped shape her research focus. She recalls conversing with a local Black resident who lived near campus but felt entirely disconnected from the university.
“I was just asking a general question, and that person was like, ‘Ma’am, I don’t know anything about that campus. I don’t feel safe going across the street. I don’t feel safe walking in that building. I don’t feel like I can use the resources. That’s your campus, but it’s not my campus,’” Breeden remembers.
“It was at that moment that I wanted to learn if other folks felt like that, Black folks specifically,” she adds. “I wanted to know why they might have felt like that and why they didn’t feel like I felt as a kid going to Winston Salem State University.”
Her research investigates the relationships between Black communities and Historically White Institutions (HWIs), with a particular focus on access and equity.
Breeden took her interviews with community members in Athens, Georgia and turned them into a stage play that expressed views from the Black community and the relationship between their community and the UGA community.
“From that conversation, lives are being changed,” says Breeden. “On the University of Georgia’s campus, we’ve been able to change the name of a street to Linnentown Lane to commemorate the Black community that used to live there and now no longer.”
Looking ahead, Breeden hopes to secure funding for a research project examining the historical relationships between Black communities and universities throughout North Carolina and South Carolina. She also committed to ensuring that research leads to tangible policy changes.
“I don’t think we should do any research if we’re not going to do something actionable with the work that we’re doing,” she says. “I’m just trying to put out more work around community-engagement, so people know how they can do it, and so people can feel inspired, but also have permission to engage in more action research, because there’s not a ton of folks doing community engagement work with Black communities in higher education right now.”
The work, she adds, is so much bigger than the classes that are taught in the academy.
“I think we have the opportunity to change lives, and I hope the students that I engage with understand that path and even moving forward, if it gets hard, I don’t want us to forget why we’re doing the work,” she says. “Our collective work with communities can truly help transform the very communities we say that we care about.”
