Dr. Leslie U. Ekpe: A Focus On Racial Equity and Belonging

Title: Assistant Professor, Higher Education and Learning Technologies, East Texas A&M University

Education: Ph.D., Higher Educational Leadership, Texas Christian University; MBA, Business Administration, Sam Houston State University; M.A., Communication Management, University of Alabama at Birmingham; B.S., Management, Alabama A&M University

Age: 33

Career mentors: Dr. Don Mills, Dr. Darron Turner, Aisha Torrey-Sawyer, and Dr. Gabriel Huddleston, Texas Christian University; Dr. Helen Gabre, Alabama A&M University; Dr. Marybeth Gasman, Rutgers University; Dr. Stephen Santa-Ramirez, University at Buffalo; Dr. Natasha Croom, Clemson University; Dr. Valerie Thompson, Wichita State University

Words of wisdom/advice for new faculty: “Invest in intentional relationships. There’s no better feeling than having a team or board of mentors to support you in your endeavors while also guiding you in areas of unfamiliarity.”

Dr. Leslie U. EkpeDr. Leslie U. Ekpe’s research, teaching and mentorship reflect a blend of intellectual rigor and compassion. An assistant professor of higher education and learning technologies at East Texas A&M University, Ekpe’s research focuses on minority serving institutions, college access and racial equity.

“When I was doing my Ph.D., I started to notice disconnect in what I was studying versus how marginalized communities were experiencing what I was studying,” Ekpe says. “I felt as though counter stories needed to be heard. If the lived experiences of those racially and ethnically minoritized were heard, we could change the practices that we have had in place that only serve one demographic of people.”

Ekpe, who played Division I college volleyball at Alabama A&M University, thought she was going to go to law school. She studied management as an undergraduate and earned master’s degrees in communication management and business administration. There were positions at law firms even though she had nagging thoughts that a legal career was not her destiny. Eventually, she had an awakening and that spark led her to a doctoral program in higher educational leadership.

“Higher education is a rapidly evolving environment because of many influences both internal and external,” says Ekpe. “Trying to figure out how this educational system works, not only for the long-standing realm but also in a way that we can understand who historically has been kept out of these opportunities.”

Although Ekpe was not a first-generation college student, she feels a deep connection to those who are. At present, she teaches graduate students in courses such as Cultivating Belonging in Higher Education, and she marvels at the resilience and determination that she witnesses. She has taught the undergraduate course Foundations of Cultural Competence, which she hopes to teach again. There are real world conversations in her classrooms so that students connect to what they are learning.

“Dr. Ekpe’s approach to teaching is rooted in care, excellence and inclusion,” says Dr. Marybeth Gasman, the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology, Rutgers Graduate School of Education. “Her students routinely describe her as a transformative educator who demands intellectual excellence while honoring each learner’s individual experiences.”

Ekpe considers herself a naturally curious person. “If you’re curious, it can ground your scholarship, your teaching and your service in care, accountability and purpose. There is an intentional purpose around the work that I do,” she notes.

Minority serving institutions were created in resistance and have found ways to adapt and thrive. In terms of student success, these institutions prioritize humanity, center students’ realities and lived experiences, and define what it means to create global citizens as leaders. Ekpe says the stories of those institutions need to be documented.

Ekpe’s current research project highlights the experiences of HBCU alumni in relation to homecoming — “how their experiences influence their alumni identity and belonging,” she explains. She recently received a Channing Briggs small research grant through NASPA (student affairs administrators in higher education), which will further the research by creating a short documentary film in addition to the article she is writing.

In the past two years, Ekpe has earned the Kimberly Harden Champion of Justice Award, the National Alliance of Black School Educators W.E.B. Du Bois Higher Education Award, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Young Alumni Rising Star Award. “These honors reflect her excellence in scholarship, teaching and service,” says Gasman.

“When I continue to do the work that I’m doing — whether it’s through teaching, service or research — I’m always asking myself who does not have access to what I’m doing,” Ekpe says. “When I answer that question, then I move forward in understanding what it is I need to do to make sure that they do have access.”