UC Berkeley

The U.S. college presidency remains predominantly white and male. However, trend data over the past several decades have documented increased diversity by race, gender, and race and gender (Green, 1988; Melidona et al., 2023). Still, LGBTQ+ college leadership has not been included in instrumentation resulting in a paucity of literature, with only two empirical studies published to date (Bullard, 2015; Leipold, 2014) that include LGBTQ+ as central subjects in the study of the college presidency. Although these studies were significant in centering queerness in the college presidency, they had a limited sample of almost exclusively white participants. Similarly, scholarship on the college presidency centering on race, gender, and the intersections of race and gender, take no formal accounting of LGBTQ+ identities. Driven by the urgent need to raise visibility and expand the discourse on diversity in the college presidency, this qualitative dissertation study explored how Queer Men of Color (N = 4) characterized their ascension to the college presidency using a critical collective case study approach (Yin, 2013). This study employed the theoretical frameworks and analytical tools of intersectionality ((CRC, 1974; Collins & Bilge, 2020; Crenshaw, 1991; hooks, 2000) and queer theories (Hames-Garcia, 2011; Warner, 1991; Watson, 2005), and the data collection process involved in-depth interviews, a demographic survey, and site visits to understand the career ascension to the college presidency for four Queer Men of Color. Despite their unique and varied experiences, this study found participants pursued purpose-driven pathways specific to the community college context, with an unplanned ascension to the college presidency. Participants reported supportive relationships and career-advancing opportunities as key affordances along their career pathways. At the same time, they described their career journeys as challenged by varied experiences of stress connected to their multiple marginalized identities, both as LGBTQ+ and as People of Color. Study findings offer empirical support that leaders with multiple-marginalized identities, specifically Queer People of Color, face nuanced yet similar barriers and affordances in ascending to the college presidency. Implications for policy, practice, and future scholarship from this dissertation contribute to a growing line of inquiry concerned with challenging hegemonic notions of leadership and promoting increased diversity in leadership ascension, inclusive of Queer People of Color, most especially the college presidency, in ways that more closely reflect our diverse student communities.