Shedding the Chrysalis
Black Women Leading in Higher Education
Published on 15. January 2026
Book
Hardback
130 pages
978-1-62671-138-9 (ISBN)
Description
Shedding the Chrysalis: Black Women Leading in Higher Education features the voices of six experienced and emerging Black females in a variety of academic leadership roles. This book provides a Black feminist perspective, highlighting the need to address racial realism within higher education administration. These personal testimonies focus on a variety of levels in the academic hierarchy to emphasize the continuum across the lived experiences of these women, some of whom have served in multiple upper-level administrative roles. The contributors' positions range from postdoctoral research fellows to positions reporting to central administration at predominantly white institutions. Shedding the Chrysalis underscores what these women have learned from mentors, allies, and adversaries that can help us all-executive-level leaders, faculty and staff at all ranks, and those aspiring to leadership positions-to build and sustain a more stable terrain in academic leadership for a variety of minoritized groups.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
IN
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-62671-138-9 (9781626711389)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2026
Purdue University Press
€0.00
Available for download
Persons
Olga M. Welch is professor and dean emerita in the School of Education at Duquesne University. She has published widely on executive mentoring, social justice, equity, and diversity, including an edited volume, Turnaround Leadership: Deans of Color as Change Agents. She was a member of the US Department of Health's African American Health Care Congress, the African American Pre-Natal Issues Task Force, and currently is an inaugural fellow for the Initiative on Race, Research, and Justice at Vanderbilt University. With Carolyn R. Hodges, she partners in Welch and Hodges, LLC, Higher Education Consultants and Leadership Training.
Carolyn R. Hodges is professor emerita of German studies and former vice provost and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Tennessee. Her publications focus on Black German Literature, comparative literature, and leadership. Past activities include service as chair of the Committee on the Recruitment and Retention of Minorities for the American Association of Teachers of German and as president of the Southern Comparative Literature Association. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Arcadia University and serves on the board of the Georgiana Simpson Society for German Diaspora Studies. With Olga M. Welch, she partners in Welch and Hodges, LLC, Higher Education Consultants and Leadership Training.
Carolyn R. Hodges is professor emerita of German studies and former vice provost and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Tennessee. Her publications focus on Black German Literature, comparative literature, and leadership. Past activities include service as chair of the Committee on the Recruitment and Retention of Minorities for the American Association of Teachers of German and as president of the Southern Comparative Literature Association. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Arcadia University and serves on the board of the Georgiana Simpson Society for German Diaspora Studies. With Olga M. Welch, she partners in Welch and Hodges, LLC, Higher Education Consultants and Leadership Training.