Shedding the Chrysalis: Black Women Leading in Higher Education

by Olga M. Welch (Editor), Carolyn R. Hodges (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626711402
Publisher:	Purdue University Press
Publication date:	01/15/2026
Series:	Navigating Careers in Higher Education
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	150

About the Author

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.

Editorial Reviews

"This book is for everyone, including men and people who aren't Black. We all ought to be seriously devoted to removing structural and systemic barriers that undermine Black women's success. This powerful, expertly written text offers an abundance of extraordinarily useful guidance." —Shaun Harper, Provost Professor of Education, Business and Public Policy, University of Southern California

"With its timely and thought-provoking focus on the intersection of race, gender, and leadership, Shedding the Chrysalis: Black Women Leading in Higher Education is especially relevant at this precarious moment of unprecedented assaults on higher education. Carolyn R. Hodges and Olga M. Welch's volume makes a significant and universal contribution to leadership studies grounded in the illuminating voices and experiences of both seasoned and emerging Black women leaders. By troubling traditional notions of who leaders are and what they look like, the authors not only reimagine institutional leadership, but also offer scholarship and perspectives that realize a powerful inclusive and equity-inspired praxis." —James Earl Davis, Bernard C. Watson Endowed Chair in Urban Education and Professor, Temple University

"Black women often courageously walk the tightrope of higher education leadership with no safety net. If we start to authentically examine their lives, their leadership, and their love, we will be a better led society. When you are serious and you are ready to lead better, start with this beautiful volume." —Mark Anthony Gooden, Christian Johnson Endeavor Professor of Education Leadership, Teachers College, Columbia University

"Shedding the Chrysalis: Black Women Leading in Higher Education is a powerhouse book written by a group of powerhouse Black women scholars committed to cocreating higher education spaces of humanity, transformation, integrity, equity, and mission. Grounded in empirical research, theory, and practice, the lessons in this book are just what we need as we navigate increasingly difficult times in higher education and beyond. This book teaches as it touches the heart and minds of readers." —H. Richard Milner, author of The Race Card: Leading the Fight for Truth in America's Schools

From the Publisher