Advancing Women's Leadership and Higher Education: Dr. April Massey, Dean

At the Edge: Think Culture

April Massey, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of the District of Columbia, has earned degrees from The Ohio State University, the University of Cincinnati, and Howard University. A speech-language pathologist by profession, she has nearly 20 years of administrative experience and has served in the capacity of dean for five years. Dr. Massey uses her disciplinary training to consider the liberal arts and careerist needs of students and the research, teaching, and leadership interests of faculty. With newly launched initiatives in signature work, women’s leadership, faculty development, STEM pipeline, faculty learning hubs, and scholarship of practice, her work emphasizes learning by doing and lived experience as content and context for teaching and learning. Her recent projects include leading the University’s General Education reform effort in 2009, partnering with the American Association of University Women through a Campus Action Project grant in 2016 to build a leadership development opportunity for women students at UDC, shepherding a faculty study team in signature work in the summer of 2017 under the umbrella of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and launching Dialogues in Leadership — an on campus faculty leadership development program in the fall of 2017.