Leadership Fellows Residency I

Dr. Koren Bedeau
CASL Education Consultant

Dr. Bedeau is a member of CASL’s External Advisory Board and is a Senior Fellow at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). She comes with a wealth of knowledge and over eighteen years of experience as a higher education administrator. Dr. Bedeau has previously held roles as Senior Associate Provost at The George Washington University, Senior Vice Provost at Drexel University, and Associate Dean of the Graduate School and affiliated faculty in the School of Communication at the University of Miami. For four years, she was executive director of the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology Engineering and Science Program (ELATES) at Drexel. She is also a founding member and historian for the Society of STEM Women of Color. Dr. Bedeau earned a Ph.D. in Mass Communication and Media Studies from Howard University, and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Central Florida.

Dr. Angelicque Tucker Blackmon
CEO & Director of Research and Evaluation, The Innovative Learning Center, LLC

Dr. Blackmon is the CEO and Director of Research and Evaluation at The Innovative Learning Center, LLC. ILC is an education, research, and data management firm. Dr. Blackmon earned her Ph.D. in Educational Studies with an emphasis in Science Education from Emory University. She has a B.S. and an M.S. degree in Analytical Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Blackmon completed a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cultural Anthropology. Dr. Blackmon was trained as a quantitative scientist but specializes in qualitative research methods and analysis. Before entering the field of education, she worked as a research chemist with Dow Chemical and 3M, where she used magnetic resonance imaging to characterize chemical compounds. She has an extensive background in developing and executing performance, outcome, and impact-based evaluations. She has a depth of knowledge of mixed methods research and general inferential statistical analysis. She specializes in designing STEM education program evaluation studies that measure cognitive and non-cognitive variables that influence students’ persistence and retention in STEM. She is the Principal Evaluator on one of few implementation programs inclusive of a research component designed to assess the impact of Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) on HBCU students’ non-cognitive variables.

Dr. Blackmon served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. She has served as the external evaluator or researcher for 20 nationwide programs designed to increase students’ knowledge, skills, interests, attitudes, and efficacy in STEM, produced over 30 reports, conference presentations, research publications, and a book chapter. In addition to evaluating programs, Dr. Blackmon works with educational leaders to create strategic plans for program design and implementation, develop logic models, and provide clients with data visualization services to generate multiple ways to engage evaluation findings. She has her Human Research certification from the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI). This certification has been valid from 2010 to the present.

Dr. Blackmon conducts research to embed learning assessments into existing emerging technology platforms. Dr. Blackmon is the Principal Investigator of an Eye-tracking Distance Learning Research Study. Eye-tracking hardware and software are used to objectively measure undergraduate students’ cognitive processes while solving chemistry word problems in an online environment. Research in chemistry education shows that eye-tracking is a useful new approach for exploring problem difficulty and students’ cognitive activities while solving word problems. This study is the only one being conducted where researchers use eye-tracking to objectively measure the impact of blended learning in chemistry on students’ problem-solving abilities.

Additionally, the study measures students’ perceptions of their problem-solving approach, confidence, control, and self-regulation. Research findings from this study have implications for chemistry education and software development to improve chemistry education. This research has been presented at national and international conferences. Another emerging technology project involves embedding learning assessments in Augmented Reality hardware and software. This project is a collaboration between Dr. Blackmon and researchers in Dublin, Ireland. Dr. Blackmon has combined advanced emerging technologies with rigorous evaluation strategies and methodologies to support clients in winning approximately $18 million in external program funding over the past 15 years.

Dr. Crystal A. deGregory
Storyteller, Historian, and Cultural Commentator

A historian and storyteller whose research interests include Black higher education and college student activism, Dr. deGregory is a research fellow at Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Historic Preservation in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Known for her collaborative advocacy and entrepreneurial leadership, she is the founder and editor of two digital storytelling projects, HBCU story and Dorian and Beyond, the story of Hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas.

A proud native of The Bahamas and a Phi Beta Kappa alumna of the historic Fisk University, she also earned Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in history from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Education from Tennessee State University. Among her myriad professional and civic affiliations is trusteeship of The Tennessee Historical Society and membership with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Hailed “young sister leader” by Spelman College and Bennett College President Emerita Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, deGregory’s publishing includes the forward to Heritage & Honor: 150-Year Story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, op-eds “Here in the Bahamas, Every Generation Has Its Storm Stories. The Tale of Hurricane Dorian Is Still Being Written” and “How the Black Colleges Beyoncé Honors in Homecoming Have Played a Vital Role in American History” for TIME. She has written chapters featured in numerous books including “Their Highest Calling: The Progressive Ethos of Black College Women in Nashville,” in the forthcoming book The Work of Tennessee Progressive Era Women. She is also editor-in-chief of The Journal of HBCU Research + Culture, an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal which publishes scholarly articles relating to HBCUs.

A gifted orator and sought-after commentator, Dr. deGregory offers a wide range of expertise on multiple topics including history, culture, education, black fraternity and sorority life, and of course, HBCUs. Dr. deGregory has presented to audiences at TEDx, SXSWedu, the Southern Festival of Books, the Nashville Public Library, Nashville Public Television, The New School, Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Historic Preservation, Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, Ford, Nissan North America, National Institutes of Health, and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. She has also given talks and served on panels for Alcorn State, Edward Waters, Fisk, Florida Memorial, Harvard, Howard, Michigan-Ann Arbor, Tennessee State, Vanderbilt, Wilberforce universities.

In addition to regular contributions to HBCUstory.org, Dr. deGregory’s words have appeared in The New York Times, TIME, The Chronicle of Higher Education, USA Today, The Tennessean, Wall Street Journal, Market Watch, Los Angeles Times, The State Journal, Lexington Herald-Leader, The Key Reporter, Nashville Scene, The Atlanta Voice, Tri-City Defender, The Houston Chronicle, EducationDIVE, INSIGHT Into Diversity, The Nation, The Feminist Wire and Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

A finalist for the HBCU Awards “Alumna of the Year” recognition, Dr. deGregory was the recipient of the Fisk University “Women of Prominence” award, her high school’s 50th Anniversary “Golden Warriors” award, and was recognized as the “Hope Dealer of the Year” by the Washington, D.C.-based The H.O.P.E. Scholarship Initiative.

Dr. Joan Gallos
CASL Senior Advisor on Leadership & Education

Dr. Gallos is an award-winning educator, author, and academic leader, as well as sought-after speaker and consultant for leadership development and organizational change projects in the U.S. and abroad. She is currently Senior Adviser on Leadership and Education to the Council for the Advancement of STEM Leadership (CASL), a Faculty Fellow at Fielding Graduate University, a core faculty member at Harvard’s Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians (LIAL), and Professor of Leadership Emerita at the former Wheelock College, where she also served as Vice President for Academic Affairs. Prior to Wheelock, Gallos was tenured Professor of Leadership, University of Missouri Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor, and Director of the Executive MBA Program at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she had also served as Dean of Education, Coordinator of University Accreditation, Director of the Higher Education Graduate Programs, and Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Strategic Planning.

Gallos holds a bachelor’s degree cum laude in English from Princeton and master’s and doctoral degrees in organizational behavior and professional education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Gallos has six published books [Business Leadership; Organization Development; Teaching Diversity: Listening to the Soul, Speaking from the Heart (with V. Jean Ramsey); and Reframing Academic Leadership (first and second editions) and Engagement: Transforming Difficult Relationships at Work (both with Lee G. Bolman)], and numerous articles, chapters, and curricular materials for the organizational and management sciences. She has a co-authored (and produced) play on teen health, two non-fiction works in development (one on the perennial gap between intention and action, the second on mastering a life of contribution and joy), an almost complete first novel, and the seeds for a number of children’s books and screenplays. Gallos blogs as The Leadership Professor at http://theleadership-professor.com/ See more at joangallos.com

Dr. Linda Liang
President, Organizational Resources, LLC

Dr. Linda Liang is a leadership expert with over 25 years of experience working with executives and organizational leaders to build leadership potential. Facilitated vision and strategy sessions to identify future direction, leadership competencies and skills needed to enhance organizational success. Identifies Diversity, Gender and Inclusion issues in organizations. Focuses on leadership development, workplace conflict, teambuilding and identifying gender issues, Linda’s insight provided practical solutions. Coaches leaders on thinking strategically, increasing the capabilities of their teams, holding others accountable, being agile and compassionate leaders in higher education, Linda designed the leadership curriculum and is former Department Chair for the Ph.D. Program in Organizational Leadership. She also held the position of Interim Dean for 10 online programs and 1,000 graduate students. Regarding her assistance with Grants from the NSF, she served as Director of Curriculum for the OURS (opportunities for underrepresented leader and has coached over 100 leaders in STEM. She focuses on executive team engagement and leadership development, using assessments, teambuilding exercises and thought-provoking questions to assess strategic thinking, leadership competencies, power and politics and compassionate leadership. With an emphasis on leadership coaching and professional excellence, Linda coached top and emerging leaders on power and presence, conflict management, team building, and building leadership competence. Certified in assessing leadership competencies and strengths, communication styles, and emotional intelligence. She is certified in the Leadership Effectiveness Analysis 360 (measures 22 leadership competencies), The Hogan Executive Suite (strengths, derailers, and motivators, the DiSC profile (communication skills) EQ-1 (emotional intelligence, and others. Coached higher education leaders and faculty, and C-suite executives, and others to identify their blind spots and to achieve higher levels of success. Organizations walk away with leaders willing to take risks who motivate others to achieve excellence. Linda holds a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. She has over 3,000 hours of coaching, including over 300 hours of diverse leaders in higher education, is an ACC (Associate Certified Coach) by the International Coach Federation, and former Manager in the consulting practice at Ernst & Young. She also graduated from all six levels of improvisation at Second City, Chicago and has appeared on stage twice. Linda is wise, insightful, practical, authentic and fun to work with. She understands the world of higher education and uses her talents to help leaders to achieve even higher levels of success for themselves and their teams.

Dr. Kelly Mack
CASL PI & Director of Knowledge Transfer & Outreach

Dr. Kelly Mack is the Vice President for Undergraduate STEM Education and Executive Director of Project Kaleidoscope, a non-profit organization focusing on undergraduate STEM education reform, at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). Prior to joining AAC&U, Dr. Mack was the Senior Program Director for the National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE Program while on loan from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) where, as a Professor of Biology, she taught courses in Physiology and Endocrinology for 17 years. Dr. Mack has been a champion for inclusive excellence in STEM higher education for several decades. She is responsible for leading externally funded initiatives related to this topic, securing over $20 million, from federal agencies and private foundations that include the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Helmsley Charitable Trust, and the Luce Foundation. During her tenure at NSF, Dr. Mack managed an annual budget of approximately $17 million, facilitated the inclusion of issues targeting women of color into the national discourse on gender equity in the STEM disciplines, and significantly increased the participation of predominantly undergraduate institutions, community colleges and minority-serving institutions in the ADVANCE portfolio.

At UMES, Dr. Mack served in many capacities including Biology Program Director where she was responsible for providing leadership and strategic vision for the intellectual, educational, and professional development of biology majors and for the coordination of faculty in providing quality instruction, research, and development activities. She also served as Principal Investigator, Director, or Co-Director for externally funded projects that totaled over $12 million dollars, including the UMES ADVANCE, MARC, and MBRS Programs, which focused on issues related to the recruitment, persistence, and advancement of African Americans, especially women, in the STEM disciplines.

Dr. Mack earned a BS degree in Biology from UMES and, later, a Ph.D. degree from Howard University in Physiology. She has had extensive training and experience in the area of cancer research with her research efforts focusing primarily on the use of novel antitumor agents in breast tumor cells. Most recently, her research focus has involved the use of bioflavonoids in the regulation of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) and estrogen receptor-negative (ER-) breast tumor cell proliferation.

She has been noted as one of the top 25 women in higher education by Diverse Issues. She serves on numerous advisory committees and councils, contributing to the successful implementation of projects, programs, and initiatives aimed at broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM and advancing the careers of diverse faculty in those disciplines. She has also served as a member of the Board of Governors for the National Council on Undergraduate Research and the National Institutes of Health Review Subcommittee for Training, Workforce Development and Diversity; and is the former Executive Secretary for the NSF Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering, which is the Congressionally mandated advisory body that focuses on efforts to broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in the STEM disciplines. Currently, she is a member of the Board of Trustees of Shimer College and a Fellow of Fielding Graduate Universities. Dr. Mack is also Chair of the Inclusive Excellence Commission, a strategic partnership between AAC&U and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Dr. Camille McKayle
CASL PI & Director of Research

Dr. Camille A. McKayle is Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI). Previous to this, she served as Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics. As Provost, she led the development of UVI’s first Ph.D. program in Creative Leadership for Innovation and Change, which graduated its first Ph.D. recipients in 2018. She has successfully served as PI or co-PI on a variety of grant projects from National Science Foundation, NASA, Department of Defense, and the Mathematical Association of America. Her grant projects have totaled more than $10 million for the university. She currently serves as PI for three National Science Foundation projects: The Center for the Advancement of STEM Leadership (CASL; collaborative with North Carolina A&T State University, Fielding Graduate University, American Association of Colleges and Universities, and UVI as lead), UVI’s HBCU-Undergraduate Program grant, and Florida-Caribbean Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation Regional Center of Excellence (collaborative with Santa Fe College). Together, these programs aim to broaden participation in the Nation’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) enterprise through focus on undergraduate STEM education and STEM leadership.

From 2005–2008, Dr. McKayle was Program Officer at the National Science Foundation for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program, in the Division for Human Resource Development in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources.

Dr. McKayle received her Ph.D. in Mathematics, from Lehigh University (Pennsylvania). Her undergraduate degree in Mathematics is from Bates College (Maine). She completed a Master’s Certificate in Creativity and Change Leadership from Buffalo State College’s International Center for Creativity Studies. Her current research interests are in the areas of Creativity Studies, Creativity and Leadership, STEM Education and STEM Leadership.

Dr. David Sul
CASL Research Team Member & Research Assistant Professor of Measurement, University
of the Virgin Islands

David Sul, Ed.D., M.Sc., is a Research Assistant Professor of Measurement at the University of the Virgin Islands. Dr. Sul teaches research methods for the doctoral program in Creative Leadership for Innovation and Change at the University of the Virgin Islands and serves as a psychometrician for the Center for the Advancement of STEM Leadership (CASL).

Dr. Sul’s current work and research focus on the design and development of culturally specific assessments (Sul, 2019, 2021), a class of culturally responsive assessments (Hood, 1998), for use within systems of evaluation. His work has been labeled “transformative” by collaborative partners from across North America, Hawaiʻi, the Caribbean, and South Africa.

Sul completed his doctorate in Education at the University of San Francisco and he served as the 2021 Chair of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) STEM Topical Interest Group (TIG) and is a member of the AEA Diversity Equity and Inclusion Working group.