DR. JOHN P. DUGAN

John currently serves as the Executive Director of Youth Leadership Programs at The Aspen Institute.  Formerly a Professor in the Higher Education graduate program at Loyola University Chicago where he taught courses on leadership, student development theory, and multiculturalism for social justice. John’s research interests focus on the influences of higher education in shaping college students’ involvement and leadership development with a specific emphasis on marginalized voices and ideas. John currently serves as the Principal Investigator for the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL), an international research program examining the influences of higher education on socially responsible leadership and other educational outcomes (e.g., efficacy, resilience, social perspective-taking, identity development). To date more than 350 institutions in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Jamaica have participated in the study yielding over 400,000 college student participants. John’s research has generated 30 printed or in press publications (e.g., refereed articles, books, and book chapters), more than 60 presentations at national and international conferences. John is a past recipient of the ACPA: College Educators International Burns B. Crookston Doctoral Research Award, Nevitt Sanford Award for Research in Student Affairs, and was named an Emerging Professional Annuit Coeptis. Additionally, the National Association for Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) recognized John as the Melvene Hardee Dissertation of the Year Runner Up and the NASPA Knowledge Community for Student Leadership awarded him the 2009 award for Outstanding Student Leadership Research.

Dr. Benjamin P. Correia-Harker

Ben (he/him) is an Associate Director of Engineering and Innovation Leadership Development at Marquette University where he provides curricular and co-curricular leadership development experiences in collaboration with the Excellence in Leadership (E-Lead) team.  In this capacity, he facilitates a number of courses across the E-Lead curriculum, mentors undergraduates, and assesses the impact of the program.  Additionally, he is an adjunct faculty member for the College of Education and teaches graduate courses on leadership, quantitative research methods, and assessment.  His research interests include exploring leadership development mindsets and the ways that contexts and social identities influence the development of various aspects of the those mindests. Prior to his current role, Ben worked in various higher education functional areas including residence life, student activities, student union management, and academic advising as well as in a non-profit where he focused on research and assessment.  He received a B.A. in religious studies from the College of Idaho, an M.S.Ed. in student affairs administration from Indiana University, and a Ph.D. in higher education from Loyola University Chicago. 

Dr. Matthew Johnson

Dr. Johnson is a professor of higher education at Central Michigan University and serves as the program director for the Master’s in Higher Education Administration program. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland in college student personnel. His research focuses on the intersections of leadership, democratic engagement, and social justice. Prior to his appointment at Central Michigan University, Matthew served as a visiting assistant professor at Miami University, and before that, he taught Navy and Marine company officers for the US Naval Academy as part of the Navy LEAD program at the University of Maryland.

Dr. Johnson’s scholarship focuses on how colleges can foster students’ capacities for engaging in a diverse democracy, particularly conversations about and across differences and social perspective-taking. Dr. Johnson serves a project consultant for the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership and is a board member for the National Issues Forum. He has published over 45 journal articles and book chapters, including publications in the Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, and Journal of Leadership Education. He serves as an associate editor of the Journal of College & Character and is an editorial board member for Oracle: The Research Journal of the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors.

DR. Laila Mccloud

Laila McCloud  (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at Grand Valley State University. She completed her Ph.D. in Higher Education and Student Affairs at the University of Iowa and has degrees in African and Black Diaspora Studies, Sociology, and Counseling from DePaul University. Prior to pursuing a faculty career, Dr. McCloud served as a student affairs educator focused on issues of equity and access. 

Her research uses critical theories and methods to broadly explore the professional and academic socialization of students within U.S. higher education. She serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of College Student Development. She is also an active member of several higher education associations including ACPA, ASHE, and NASPA. Her research has been published in the Journal of College Student Development and the Journal of Higher Education, and the Journal of the Professoriate.

DR. Symphony Oxendine

Symphony Oxendine (she/her) is Cherokee/Choctaw from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dr. Oxendine is an Assistant Professor in Higher Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and coordinator for the Ed.D. in Educational Leadership specialization in Higher Education. She was a student affairs practitioner before pursuing her doctorate and becoming faculty in a student affairs/higher education graduate preparation program. As an Indigenous quantitative scholar, Dr. Oxendine’s research centers the social and institutional issues that affect the educational performance and institutional support of Indigenous peoples and other underrepresented groups within post-secondary education institutions, graduate preparation programs, student engagement and its impact on retention, leadership development, and appreciative inquiry. Her concentration on these research areas will help shape the direction and development of higher education by contributing to the understanding of various institutional, psychosocial, and political processes as a means to develop the capacity for change.

DR. Eugene T. Parker III

Eugene (Gene) T. Parker III is an associate professor of higher education administration in the department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Kansas. He is interested in matters of diversity, equity and inclusion as it relates to college students and organizations. His research has focused on the impact of collegiate experiences on academic and psychosocial student outcomes, such as academic and cognitive outcomes, leadership and moral development. This area of research has centered on the association between diversity experiences, student-faculty interactions and other collegiate experiences and college outcomes. Recently, his research has examined the relationship between these experiences and students’ perceptions of the campus climate for diversity. He also has research interests that are focused on organizational and institutional theories, governance, leadership and structures. Recent research has centered on organizational leadership, diversity leadership and leadership-centered theoretical perspectives. Dr. Parker teaches courses in organization and governance, college finance and leadership in higher education. Dr. Parker received his B.A. from the University of Iowa, his MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Iowa.

DR. Krista M. Soria

Dr. Krista M. Soria (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Adult, Organizational Learning, and Leadership at the University of Idaho. She is a critical quantitative researcher seeking to investigate the most equitable and inclusive programmatic practices and institutional conditions to prepare students to engage in the complexities of social change. She examines how higher education institutions can create a more supportive campus climate for students from diverse backgrounds, whether programs are equitably accessible and beneficial to all students, and how we can create structural conditions to support students’ development and success. Dr. Soria has published over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, edited five books, and authored a volume on social class in higher education. She recently co-edited a New Directions for Student Leadership volume on evidence-based practices in leadership education, is a principal investigator on several large grants, and also works as a research associate with the National Center for College Students with Disabilities. 

DR. SUSAN R. KOMIVES

Susan is Professor Emerita in the Student Affairs Program at the University of Maryland where she taught until 2012. She is past president of the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) and of the American College Personnel Association (ACPA). She served as Vice President of two colleges and is the author of a dozen books or monographs including Student Services, Exploring Leadership, Leadership for A Better World, and the Handbook for Student Leadership Development. She was a member of the teams that wrote Learning Reconsidered and the ensemble that developed the Social Change Model of Leadership Development. She is the founding executive editor of the forthcoming New Directions for Student Leadership, a quarterly monograph publication from Jossey-Bass (a division of Wiley publishers). She is a co-founder of the National Clearinghouse for Leadership Programs. She was chair of the ACPA Senior Scholars, a senior scholar with the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Leadership Association. She has consulted in leadership or student affairs in Canada, Japan, South Korean, Taiwan, and Qatar. She is the 2011 recipient of the University of Maryland Board of Regent’s Award for Faculty Teaching and the NASPA Shaffer Award for Academic Excellence as a graduate faculty member. A recipient of both the ACPA and NASPA outstanding research and scholarship awards, her research includes a grounded theory on Leadership Identity Development and the international Multi-institutional Study of Leadership. She is the 2012 recipient of the ACPA Life Time Achievement Award and the 2013 Leadership and Service Award from the Association of Leadership Educators.

Dr. Julie E. Owen

Julie is an Assistant Professor of Leadership and Integrative Studies at New Century College, George Mason University, where she teaches courses on socially responsible leadership, civic engagement, and community-based research. She is a Research Scholar for the National Clearinghouse for Leadership Programs and is co-editor of the Handbook for Student Leadership Development. She is active on several national research teams, including serving as a project consultant for the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL) and a research team member of the Leadership Identity Development (LID) project. She is a frequent presenter, consultant, and keynote speaker on topics related to leadership, social change, and organizational development.

Owen is the 2005 recipient of the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award, the 2008 recipient of the CAS research grant, a 2011 ACPA Annuit Coeptis initiate, and a 2012 Mason teaching excellence award winner. She has assumed leadership roles in numerous professional associations including ACPA: College Educators International and the International Leadership Association (ILA). Owen received her B.A. degree (1993) in psychology and English from the College of William and Mary, and her M. Ed. (1996) in College Student Personnel Administration from James Madison University. She holds a certificate of non-profit administration from Duke University (2000) and received her PhD (2008) in college student personnel at the University of Maryland, College Park.