CEP Executive Committee

Meet the CEP Executive Committee
 

CEP Chair-Elect: Nadrea Njoku, Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute
Nadrea Njoku, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Associate at the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute of the United Negro College Fund. As Senior Research Associate, Nadrea conducts empirical research and evaluation related to guided pathways and student success. Her broader research foci include Black women in higher education, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the influence of campus environments on student experiences. A graduate of Indiana University's doctoral program in Higher Education and Student Affairs, she is popularly known as a member of IU’s Great 8. Her scholarship is centered in a critical race and feminist framework that is devoted to disrupting issues of race and gender within the post-secondary education context. She positions this work within her own narrative of growing up and attending an HBCU in the American South. She has worked across multiple functions of higher education — housing, student affairs, fraternity and sorority affairs, alumni relations, and evaluation. She is a proud alumna of Xavier University of Louisiana.

CEP Secretary: Cameron Beatty, Florida State University
Cameron C. Beatty, (he/him) is an assistant professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department at Florida State University. Cameron teaches courses in the undergraduate leadership studies program and the higher education graduate program, as well as conducts research with the Leadership Learning Research Center. Cameron’s research foci includes exploring the intersections of gender and race in leadership education, leadership development of Students of Color on historically white college campuses, and understanding experiences of racial battle fatigue for Black and Latinx students.

CEP Mentor-Protegé Co-Chair : Kaleb Briscoe, Mississippi State University
Kaleb L. Briscoe, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in Higher Educational Leadership. Her research agenda focuses on problematized, oppressed and marginalized populations within higher education through critical theoretical frameworks and qualitative methodological approaches. Through her scholarship on campus racial climate, she seeks to disrupt whiteness and white supremacy on predominantly white campuses. Her research shapes administrators', specifically university presidents', responses to race and racism, by challenging their use of anti-Blackness and non-performative rhetoric.


CEP Mentor-Protegé Co-Chair : Crystal Garcia, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Crystal E. Garcia, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research critically examines the mechanisms by which racially minoritized college students experience campus environments, specifically focusing on campus climates and the role of student affairs in student experiences.



CEP Pre-Conference Chair : Gina Garcia, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Gina Ann Garcia is an associate professor in the department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research centers on issues of equity and justice in higher education with an emphasis on understanding how Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) embrace and enact an organizational identity for serving minoritized populations. She is the author of Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Opportunities for Colleges & Universities, published by Johns Hopkins University Press and awarded the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Book of the Year Award in 2020. She also edited the book Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Practice: Defining “Servingness” at HSIs, published by Information Age Publishing. Dr. Garcia stays active with the Latinx community at the University of Pittsburgh, serving as the founding advisor for the Latinx Student Association, chairing the Latinx & Hispanic Heritage Month committee, and launching the inaugural 100% virtual and 100% free Latinx Connect conference to connect educators and activists across the United States to discuss identity and contemporary issues facing the Latinx community: https://www.diversity.pitt.edu/events/2021-latinx-connect-conference She served as member-at-large for the ASHE board 2019-2021 and is the scholar mother to Jovan (age 12) and Jaren (age 9).

CEP Pre-Conference Chair : Chauntee Thrill, Appalachian State University
Dr. Chauntee Thrill  (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education within the Reich College of Education at Appalachian State University and the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Developmental Education. Dr. Thrill’s research focuses on understanding postsecondary educational access, STEM, college readiness and academic success for minority student populations in community colleges. Her work highlights student experiences, providing researchers and practitioners the opportunity to interrogate data from and derive strategies to enhance support, best practices, and aligned college policies to bolster student success in the community college setting.


CEP Nomination Chair : Antonio Duran, Florida International University
Antonio Duran (he/him) is an assistant professor in the higher education program at Florida International University. Antonio’s research agenda investigates how historical and contemporary legacies of oppression influence college
student development, experiences, and success. Antonio is passionate about serving the higher education community through the work he does in professional associations as seen through his involvement with organizations such as AAHHE, ACPA, ASHE, and NASPA. Within CEP, he has previously served as the pre-conference co-chair and on the mentor-protégé program planning committee.

CEP Graduate Student Representative : Hannah L. Reyes