Women Leading Change in Academia

In Women Leading Change in Academia: Breaking the Glass Ceiling, Cliff, and Slipper, a groundbreaking collection, Callie Rennison and Amy Bonomi convene the perspectives of diverse women academic leaders who discuss their rise to key leadership positions and effective change-making in higher education, despite underlying structural barriers and bias that disadvantage women.

Contributors underscore the revolutionary power and innovation that women leaders bring to bear to improve upon business as usual in the academy—even in the “glass cliff” scenario when their risk of failure should be highest. Women across leadership positions—presidents, provosts, deans, and department chairs—discuss leading strategic planning, culture change, and navigating the “double bind,” along with strategies for successful negotiation, networking, mentoring, and work-life balance. Contributors also underscore strategies for leading powerful innovation and change in the academy early in their careers when they do not hold formal leadership roles and experience marginalization due to their identity.

Opening chapters examine institutional power structures, intersectionality, bias, along with enacting change-making leadership in spite of these barriers. Additional chapters offer insight on the power of mentorship, strategic networking for women in the academy, negotiation strategies, professional development and work-life. The collection addresses moving on, up or out of formal leadership in the academy, how to create institutional change, and strategies for rising, revolutionizing, and redoubling efforts to support women leaders.

Women Leading Change in Academia is intended for women, allies, and institutions committed to equitable conditions for women leaders to be maximally impactful.

Contributors include:

• Amy Bonomi, Ph.D., MPH, Director of the Children and Youth Institute and Co-administrator of the Women’s Leadership Institute—Michigan State University
• Heather M. Bush, Ph.D., Kate Spade & Co. Foundation Endowed Professor in the Department of Biostatistics—University of Kentucky
• Tabbye Chavous, Ph.D., Professor of Education and Psychology, Director of the National Center for Institutional Diversity—University of Michigan
• Kendra Spence Cheruvelil, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Development-Lyman Briggs College—Michigan State University
• Ann L. Coker, Ph.D., MPH, Verizon Wireless Endowed Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology—University of Kentucky
• Margaret Dimond, Ph.D., President and CEO-McLaren Oakland Region—McLaren Health Care of Michigan
• Verna Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., President of the HERS Institute
• Yolanda Flores Niemann, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Psychology—University of North Texas
• Catherine “Katie” Kaukinen, Ph.D., Professor and Chair in the Department of Criminal Justice—University of Central Florida
• Laura Kohn-Wood, Ph.D., Dean of the School of Education and Human Development—University of Miami
• Layli Maparyan, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Wellesley Centers for Women, Professor of Africana Studies—Wellesley College
• Patricia McGuire, J.D., President—Trinity Washington University
• Debra A. Moddelmog, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Professor of English—University of Nevada, Reno
• Beronda L. Montgomery, Ph.D., MSU Foundation Professor in the Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Assistant Provost for Faculty Development - Research—Michigan State University
• Donde Plowman, Ph.D., Chancellor—University of Tennessee, Knoxville</