Campus Women Lead

Our Workshop Facilitators

Our facilitators are distinguished and expert workshop leaders from a variety of backgrounds and institutions. To read more about their respective experience and expertise, please see their individual bios below.

Facilitator Biographies

Nancy “Rusty” Barceló
Nancy “Rusty” Barceló is a Chicana and president of Northern New Mexico College. Prior to her tenure at NNMC, she was vice provost and vice president for Equity and Diversity at the University of Minnesota and vice president and vice provost for Minority Affairs and Diversity at the University of Washington. Born and raised in California’s San Joaquin Valley, Dr. Barceló began her career as an educator, administrator, and diversity advocate at the University of Iowa, where she received her Ph.D. in higher education administration. Today, she continues her work on both an institutional and national level as an educator, advocate, and spokesperson for equity and diversity in higher education. A self-described community builder, she is also an avid bicyclist and accomplished storyteller, songwriter/lyricist, and guitarist.

Gladys Brown
A commitment to education, social justice and equity is the driving force in Gladys Brown’s professional and personal life. She is currently the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Director of Faculty and Staff Affirmative Action at the University of California, Riverside. She spent twenty years as a compliance lawyer and Director of Human Relations Programs at the University of Maryland, College Park; three years as the Director/Associate Director of the Office of Women in Higher Education at the American Council of Education and three years as the Director of the American Association of University Women. Also, she was the Co-Coordinator of the HERS Bryn Mawr Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education and Co-Director of the University of Maryland Study Abroad Program in the Cameroon. She has received numerous awards, including a citation from the White House for having one of the best campus diversity programs and Web sites in the U.S. In addition, she has conducted hundreds of workshops and keynotes on institutional transformation, diversity, equity, and leadership development throughout the United States and in Germany, China, Norway, South Africa, and Cameroon. Currently, she serves on the Goddard College Board of Trustees and the Saint Mary’s Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership. Her publications include Diversity Blueprint: A Manual for Colleges and Universities (1998) in partnership with the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and several ACE publications: From Where We Sit: Presidential Perspectives on the Presidency (2001), Breaking the Barriers: Presidential Strategies for Enhancing Career Mobility (2001) and Breaking the Barriers: A Guidebook of Strategies (2002). She received a JD from the University of Maryland School of Law and a BS from Morgan State University, complemented by the Harvard Development Management Program and the Bryn Mawr Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education.

Gertrude Fraser
Gertrude Fraser is currently vice provost for Faculty Advancement at the University of Virginia. Under her leadership, UVa achieved the highest acceptance rates for African American and women faculty candidates in its history. Among her successful faculty development efforts at UVa is a search committee diversity training program, a chair leadership initiative and a program to enhance faculty's success with scholarly writing. She is also an anthropologist with a keen interest in and admiration for people and the organizations they create to do good in the world. With twenty years experience at large research universities, she has developed the tools and insights to help underrepresented groups of both genders thrive in these complex organizations. She is a learner and a teacher and believes that the resources for leadership lie in all of us­requiring us to go deep within ourselves as well as to rely on others. An African American women with Caribbean roots, she values laughter as essential to negotiating the difficult terrain of being a minority woman in higher education. She always has been a path breaker, opening the way for others. Dr. Fraser earned her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and her doctorate in medical anthropology from The Johns Hopkins University. As a Program Officer in higher Education at the Ford Foundation she managed an influential grant-making portfolio that included the Ford Fellowship program, campus diversity initiatives, African American and Women’s Studies and affirmative action grant-making. She is the author of African American Midwifery in the South: Dialogues of Birth, Race, and Memory (Harvard University Press). In addition to her administrative responsibilities, Gertrude continues to conduct scholarly research on African American health.

Lupe Gallegos-Diaz
Lupe Gallegos-Diaz has over seventeen years of professional experience and scholarly work in diversity/multiculturalism, ethnic/racial student and leadership development, women and community organizing, social justice education work through nonprofits, fundraising and philanthropy. Her work in higher education administration centers on multiculturalism at two levels. One, working with students on what it means to be multicultural and how we prepare ourselves for the changing diverse and multicultural world. And two, how we hold institutions of higher learning accountable and responsible for their “talk” on diversity and  multiculturalism. Mrs. Gallegos-Diaz is currently the Director of Chicana/Latino Academic Student Development at the University of California, Berkeley in the Multicultural Student Development Unit. She has also served as the national coordinator to the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies for the two terms in the early 1990’s. Currently, she is the national treasurer for Mujeres Activas en Letras y Ciencias Sociales, a national Chicana/Latina feminist organization whose mission is to recruit and retention women in higher education. Mrs. Gallegos-Diaz is very active on various boards, including the Chicana/Latina Foundation, El Concilio of San Mateo, and Bay Area Hispanics Institute for Advancement. She also directs a grassroots organizational incubator/internship program in Berkeley that provides administrative assistance with local Berkeley students. She has been working with the Program on the Status and Education of Women and Campus Women Lead since 2000. Mrs. Gallegos-Diaz has earned a Masters in Social Work from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. in Sociology in from the University of Santa Clara.  She also holds a Certificate in Development from the Institute of Nonprofit Management, University of San Francisco. Mrs. Gallegos-Diaz is currently ABD in the department of Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley and her research focus is on Chicanas and Work in the nonprofit sector. 

Susan Henking
Susan E. Henking is professor of religious studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York. Her scholarly and pedagogical work focuses on theories of religion and their relation to feminism, women’s lives, gender, and sexuality. Susan has also published on the relation of religion to higher education in the United States. She has led teaching workshops that focus on developing an inclusive pedagogy both under the auspices of the American Academy of Religion and at the Colleges. She is also founding series editor of “Teaching Religious Studies,” published by Oxford University Press, and has been Senior Research Associate at HERS (Higher Education Resource Services), as well as the elected secretary of the American Academy of Religion, where she has served on the board for nine years. Susan spent six years as department chair, has been a leader in interdisciplinary programs, and served three years in senior academic leadership at the Colleges. Dr. Henking earned her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Chicago in religion and psychological studies and her B.A. from Duke University.

Carol Hollenshead
Carol S. Hollenshead is the former director of the University of Michigan Center for the Education of Women (CEW) and Chair of the University of Michigan President's Advisory Commission on Women's Issues. As director of CEW, she oversaw research, service programs, advocacy, and policy development focused on higher education, careers and leadership for women. She has served as a principal research investigator or project director on numerous education and research programs concerning women in the academy, women’s organizations and leadership, women in science, mathematics and engineering, as well as women's education and careers.Her scholarship in these areas has been published in numerous national journals, such as New Directions in Higher Education, Diversity Digest, and Change. Director Emerita Hollenshead is active in a variety of education and professional organizations: as the Chair of the Board of the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) from 1994-1996;as the state coordinator for the Michigan American Council on Education Network from 1999 to 2002; and currently as a member of the national ACE Network Executive Board. Carol has also chaired the President’s Advisory Commission on Women’s Issues (PACWI) since its inception in 1989.As Chair of PACWI, she has been instrumental in initiating and advocating for many of the U-M policies that are especially important to women on campus; these include the modification of duties policy for faculty that grants relief from classroom teaching to adjust to parenting newly born or adopted children, equity in salary, and the ability to use paid sick leave to care for dependent children. She has also served on the board of directors for organizations such as Ozone House, The Ann Arbor Teen Center, and the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

Pat Lowrie
Patricia (Pat) M. Lowrie is the director of the Women’s Resource Center (WRC) at Michigan State University and also serves as the assistant to the dean in the College of Veterinary Medicine. As WRC director, she leads a staff in developing and implementing educational, leadership, social justice, and advocacy programs. The Center serves as a focus for coordinating resources and referrals that catalyze institutional change through understanding and valuing difference and empowering faculty, students, and staff to be effective change agents. In veterinary medicine, Pat’s role is to enhance and increase educational and professional opportunities for underrepresented groups in the health professions. As part of a collaborative broad-based university team, she also advises university leadership on effective methods to engage various constituent groups in synergistic activity that moves beyond anti-discrimination teachings and begins to infuse social justice education more comprehensively into the institution. This team collectively addresses the issues of individuals who are members of oppressed groups, including persons with disabilities and persons who are historically victims of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. A graduate of Howard University, she is the recipient of several awards, including the University Diversity Award and the All-University Distinguished Academic Staff Award. Pat chairs the executive committee of Campus Women Lead, an affiliate of AAC&U’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Global Initiatives and the Project on the Status and Education of Women.

Donna Maeda
Donna Maeda is a professor in the Department of Critical Theory and Social Justice at Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. She has served as special assistant to the president, working with students, faculty, administrators, and staff members to develop short- and long-term strategies for addressing issues of diversity, equity, multiculturalism, and campus climate. Dr. Maeda has also served as academic director for the Multicultural Summer Institute, an intensive four-week program that combines academic and co-curricular components in an intensive community-building environment. Dr. Maeda’s research and teaching interests focus on interactions between legal and social discourses in the production and transformation of race, gender, culture, sexuality, ability, and other forms of difference. Dr. Maeda received her Ph.D. in Social Ethics from the University of Southern California, a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall), and a B.A. in Music History and Literature from St. Olaf College. 

Linda Marchesani
Linda S. Marchesani has over twenty years of professional experience and scholarly work in social justice education, higher education administration, faculty, staff and organizational development. She is currently the Director of Workplace Learning and Development (WLD) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  WLD provides comprehensive training and organizational development services for the campus and for other higher education institutions and regional organizations.  Dr. Marchesani is also an adjunct faculty member with the Social Justice Education Program in the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and maintains an independent consulting practice.  She has consulted and published on issues of diversity and social justice as it relates to faculty development, curriculum innovation, and multicultural organizational development (MCOD). She has provided leadership for a comprehensive MCOD initiative at UMass Amherst and has consulted with other higher education institutions on implementing the MCOD process.  Dr. Marchesani has created innovative undergraduate social justice curricula, conducted faculty and teaching assistant training on teaching and learning in the diverse classroom, and mentored graduate students in social justice education.  Currently, she is on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, a social change philanthropic organization. Dr. Marchesani received her B.A. in health education from Lehman College, CUNY, her M.A. in health and affective education from Hunter College, CUNY, and her Ed.D. in humanistic psychological education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1987.

Caryn McTighe Musil
Caryn McTighe Musil is Senior Vice President of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and oversees the office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives, where AAC&U’s Program on the Status and Education of Women is housed. Before moving into national level administrative work in higher education, she was a faculty member teaching English and women’s studies for eighteen years. She spent most of her teaching career at an institution that had become co-ed only one year before her arrival. Dr. Musil has special expertise in curriculum transformation, faculty development, U.S. and global diversity, and women's issues. From 1984-1991, Dr. Musil served as Executive Director of the National Women's Studies Association, and in 1992 she moved to AAC&U. Working with more than 150 different campuses, she has directed dozens of funded projects on subjects like women's studies and student learning, women and scientific literacy, U.S. diversity and democracy, liberal education, and global citizenship. In 1995 she was named in Who's Who of American Women, and in 2005 she received the Donna Shavlik Award for Sustained and Continuing Commitment to Women's Advancement in Higher Education from the American Council on Education. Author and editor of numerous publications, Dr. Musil is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop leader who has been writing, teaching, and speaking about women, gender, and diversity throughout her career. She received her B.A. from Duke University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University. 

Shirley Tang
Shirley Suet Ling Tang is an Assistant Professor of Asian American Studies and American Studies at the University of Massachusetts--Boston. Having led public health community-centered research and young women organizing projects in immigrant/refugee communities in Massachusetts, she is currently focusing on research and writing about race, (im)migration and development. Her research and teaching interests include: comparative urban cultural history; Southeast Asian American community studies; social consequences of war; and creative expressions at local and transnational levels. She is working on a book manuscript that examines the development and displacement of the Khmer (Cambodian) American community in Revere, Massachusetts. Her most recent published works include: "Community-Centered Research as Knowledge/Capacity-Building in Immigrant and Refugee Communities" in Engaging Contradictions: Theory, Politics and Methods of Activist Scholarship, edited by Charles R. Hale (CA: California University Press, forthcoming 2008); "Challenges of Policy and Practice in Under-Resourced Asian American Communities: Analyzing Public Education, Health, Development Issues with Cambodian American Women," Asian American Law Journal (CA: University of California at Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, forthcoming 2008); and Peter Kiang and Shirley Suet Ling Tang, "Translocal Mobilization and Local Politics: An Analysis of Asian American Electoral Victories in Metro Boston," in The Transnational Politics of Asian Americans, edited by Christian Collet and Pei-te Lien (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, forthcoming). She received her Ph.D. from State University of New York at Buffalo in American Studies and her B.A. from Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Sharon J. Washington
Sharon J. Washington is executive director of the National Writing Project. Throughout her career she was been engaged in work that contributes to a greater understanding of equity and inclusion. Her professional experiences encompass teaching and conducting research, academic administration, and consultation in higher education. Washington’s scholarly activities have focused on: exploring the dynamics of forming and sustaining multicultural alliances; the impact of social identities on teaching, leadership and research; and the impact of courses with a social justice theme on students’ attitudes and beliefs about diversity. Her career in higher education has included: Interim Director of Faculty Equity Programs at the University of California, Office of the President; Special Assistant to the President for Diversity Initiatives at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, NC; Provost and Professor of Education at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA; Professor of Education at Springfield College in Springfield, MA; and Assistant Professor in Leisure Studies at Kent State University, Kent, OH. In addition, she spent a semester as a Visiting Scholar in the Office of the President at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in higher education administration. Dr. Washington earned a Ph.D. in Education at The Ohio State University, M.A. at Central Michigan University, and B.S. at The Ohio State University.

Kathleen Wong(Lau)
Kathleen Wong (Lau) is an assistant professor in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University. Her areas of research and teaching are in intercultural communication and gender and communication with a special focus on women of color and other underrepresented groups in organizational settings. Her scholarly activities and grants include a Ford Foundation project researching the impact of formal and informal policies on the racial and gender climate in institutions of higher learning. She is a qualitative researcher on a nine-institution grant-funded project studying the impact of intergroup dialogues with her specific research focus on prejudice reduction, systemic attribution for discrimination, and intergroup empathy. Most recently, Dr. Wong(Lau) has been working with her graduate students to conduct oral histories developing a method of interracial oral histories in an African American elders oral history project in the local community of Kalamazoo. She is currently working to train predominantly African American and Latino middle school students to collect oral histories of community elders in Kalamazoo public schools. Dr. Wong(Lau) has over fourteen years of professional training and leadership development experience in diversity, social justice, global and intercultural communication skills, and gender issues within the context of higher education working primarily with faculty, staff, and administrators. Before her appointment at WMU, Ms. Wong (Lau) served as a senior staff trainer in the Office of Intergroup Relations in the Office of the Provost at Arizona State University working primarily with faculty on diversity related research activities, interventions, and professional development . Dr. Wong (Lau) received her B.S. in Intercultural Communication at California State University and her Ph.D. from Arizona State University.