Campus Location

Dallas Campus (Online)

Date of Award

7-2024

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8876-5782

Document Type

Dissertation

Department

Organizational Leadership

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Committee Chair or Primary Advisor

Jennifer Butcher

Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor

Linda Wilson-Jones

Third Committee Member or Committee Reader

Misty Resendez

Abstract

This narrative inquiry qualitative research study explored the lived experiences of Black women in senior leadership roles at Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) member institutions. Using Black feminist thought as the theoretical framework, this research study centered on the voices of 10 current or recently retired Black female senior-level leaders at CCCU campuses. The research study focused on one central research question and three subquestions that examined the challenges and barriers experienced by the participants, the role of mentorship in their leadership journey, and the impact of the participants’ Christian faith in their career trajectory to senior leadership positions in CCCU member institutions. Ten themes emerged from the three research questions: (a) lack of mentors/mentorship opportunities, (b) racial and gender discrimination, (c)microaggressions, (d) lack of support in role, (e) served as mentors, (f) leadership development, (g) kinship, (h) faith identity, (i) calling from God, and (j) leadership style/approach. The results presented provided insight into why there is a dearth of Black women serving in senior-level leadership at CCCU member institutions and offer recommendations on how to increase the percentage of Black women senior leaders at CCCU member institutions based on the lived experiences of the research participants.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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