This Prof Life Podcast: Women of Color in Higher Education

We know that scholarship is the pursuit of objective truth, and entrepreneurship is the pursuit of a future we build ourselves. But what happens when the ground beneath both of those pursuits is fractured by loss?

How does one maintain their research, grow a business, and honor ambitions when grief is sitting at the head of the table? In this episode, we’re stepping into the difficult, often invisible intersection of the mind, the marketplace, and the heart.

This episode is about building on broken ground and finding out what remains when the world as we knew it changes.

Dr. Chinasa Elue, who was recently promoted to full professor at her institution, takes us on her journey. Join me as she shares an update centered around being an academic, an entrepreneur and a grief coach.

You can find more about Dr. Elue and her work at https://www.drchinasaelue.com/ or on LinkedIn

Find more episodes of This Prof Life on my website drpatsanders.com  or anywhere you find your favorite podcasts.

It's a fact. Honest conversations about workplace trauma are often avoided or even dismissed, especially when related to Black women and women of color. 

In this episode, we continue to center the voices and experiences of Black women navigating workplace trauma, racial bias, and the unique challenges within higher education. 

My guest, Ms. Ruth Abban, a psychotherapist who practices in the U.K., and I explore what workplace trauma looks like, how racial bias shapes opportunity and advancement, and the lasting impact these experiences have on identify, well-being and career paths. 

This conversation is really for anyone committed to understanding, supporting, and transforming workplace culture, especially within academic and professional spaces. 

Find all episodes here: Dr. Pat Sanders

Explore Ms. Abban's work here: Ms. Ruth Abban or here: Abban Psychotherapist

Ms. Abban has been nominated for the 2026 UK Black Stars List

an amazing honor.

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Have you ever been tone-policed as a Black woman or woman of color? Or appointed to a role only to be removed when someone's discomfort outweighs your credentials?

In academia, experiences and patterns like these that shape professional identity, leadership access, and psychological safety are not isolated incidents. 

In this This Prof Life episode, I sit down with Ms. Ruth Abban, an integrative psychotherapist based in London, for Part 1 of a critical conversation on workplace trauma, racial identity, and bias in academic spaces. 

In the episode, we discuss: 

• Tone-policing and respectability politics in higher education.
• The emotional and professional impact of racial bias. 
• How workplace trauma manifests for Back women and women of color. 
• Deconstruct identity-based stressors in institutional environments. 

Join me for an honest and necessary discussion about navigating academia while protecting your mental health and sense of self. 

To learn more about Ms. Ruth Abban follow her on LinkedIn. 

To find out more about me and my journey, visit drpatsanders.com

Listen to This Prof Life Women of Color Podcast on any of your favorite platforms. Please be sure to subscribe, download, share and leave a five-star rating. 

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Relaunch of This Prof Life: Women of Color in Higher Education Podcast!

In this episode, Dr. Pat Sanders, offers a candid discussion on mentorship and sponsorship in higher education, with a particular focus on the lived experiences of Black women and women of color. Drawing from personal insight and professional observations, the episode examines the assumption that mentorship is inherently neutral or universally beneficial. 

This episode explores how mentoring relationships for Black women and other women of color are often shaped by racialized and gendered labor expectations, requiring emotional, intellectual, and political work that is rarely acknowledged or rewarded. 

The episode also assesses the limits of mentorship without sponsorship, highlighting how guidance and support do not always translate into structural change or career advancement. 

Listeners are invited to consider how insitutions rely on mentorship as a symbolic solution, while failing to adress inequities in power, access and promotion. 

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Find out more about Dr. Pat here Dr.Pat Sanders

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Dr. Pat is approaching 30-years as an experienced academic administrator, college director, mentor and full, merited professor whose passions center around equity, inclusion and equality.

She can be reached at [email protected] where she invites recommendations for guests and topics for the podcast. 

Thank you for listening. If you enjoy this podcast, you can enhance your support here:  Buy Me a Coffee

Dr. Pat

Great food, fine wines and higher education are three of Dr. Yvonne Friedman's loves. Better known as Dr. Y, she shares her passion for all three and her climb up the executive ladder to become a vice president in the student affairs arena. While her story is very similar to other women of color who work in the academy, this petite, Mexican American, latina says after several moves, she is very content where she is at Coastal Carolina University, but is always looking towards the future. 

In addition to leading well, she wants to coach and mentor other women and women of color in who are in higher education. Listen in to find out what got her to the "E-Suite" of academia.

"Leader and advocate for nurturing underrepresented women in the workplace by creating communities of practice and pipelines for success" is her motto. 

You can read more about Dr. Friedman on LinkedIn. There, she writes about helping women and trauma0nformed pedagogy and leadership: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonneh

Find more information about This Prof Life Podcast here: https://tinyurl.com/5y7tyj27

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Email me at [email protected] for feedback, information or to suggest other guests. 

I do appreciate you!

Living and studying as a Black woman in Cuba led Dr. Kaifa Roland to write not only one book but two about her experiences.  She is currently Director of Global Black Studies and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Clemson University. Join this delightfully intellectual conversation that centers around her cultural research which focuses on Cuba and the African Diaspora in the Caribbean. She has penned a variety of articles and chapters describing the black experience. You won't be disappointed as she speaks about the tourism industry, entrepreneurshp, national identity, racial and gender constructions, higher education and other topics. I appreciate your support through five-star ratings on Apple podcasts and other platforms.

You can find Dr. Roland at https://www.kaifaroland.com/

Find more episodes on my website: https://www.drpatsanders.com/podcast

Have you felt stuck lately? Are you looking for inspiration and motivation to make your next move? Dr. Carol Parker Walsh has experienced it all from being a corporate attorney, to higher education administrator, and now as her own boss. On this episode of This Prof Life, Dr. Parker Walsh shares her journey of being authentically true to herself and living out her values, through autonomy and creativity. 

She shares ways to get unstuck from indecision along with some very important pieces of advice:

• Do an internal audit - ask what else can I do? 
• Make sure you decide how you want to work and show up - what legacy do you want to leave? 
• Start building a bridge  - see the vision of where you want to go next. 

Listen in to hear more personal lessons and takeaways from this dynamic executive coach, brand strategist and leader. 

I definitely left inspired by the conversation! 

Find her here: https://www.carolparkerwalsh.com/

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Your listener-ship is appreciated. 

Myths, tractors, rumors, coin collections, stories.  They are all part of Dr. Yovanna Pineda's path of research. A Guatemalan-American Professor of History connects stories that are developed through machinery and agriculture. It may sound different, somewhat nerdy, even. But, you are in for a treat with this soon-to-be second time book author located at the University of Central Florida.

Dr. Pineda also shares the challenges she has faced while working to be promoted to the next level of the professoriate. Listen in on this delightful conversation with Dr. Pat Sanders, a thought leader concerning women of color in higher education. 

Do you consider your work to be "creative" or "traditional" scholarship? This week's guest, Dr. Kimberly Garza, says you can do both, successfully. A creative writer and professor of literature, Dr. Garza has recently published a book that includes three different languages- one for each of the ethnic backgrounds that she proudly claims.

She makes it a priority to share authors of Latin descent with her students at the University of Texas- San Antonio, which has a large Hispanic population. In this episode of "This Prof Life: Women of Color in Higher Education" join Dr. Pat Sanders and Dr. Garza as they discuss the importance and necessity of creative research.

When we pursue our dreams, it may lead us down more than one path and even to a different outcome. Whitley Greene, an adjunct dance professor, says that is what led her to teaching at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Currently, she shares her passion with students at the University of North Texas. In this episode she has an impactful discussion with Dr. Pat Sanders after following her heart, but while keeping it real at the same time. Whitley is honored by the privilege to learn, lead, and serve through the Fine Arts.