There was a time when crises on college and university campuses were relatively rare. Much has changed, and it has changed quite rapidly. Rather than being isolated incidents requiring the sole attention of presidents, chancellors, or communication professionals, the proliferation of crises across campuses means that crisis leadership has now become fundamental to the work of university personnel across levels, disciplines, and institutions. Drawing upon the findings of forty interviews with senior leaders from ten major research universities across the United States and a content analysis of over one thousand articles from a variety of news outlets, Crisis Leadership in Higher Education presents a theory-informed framework for academic and administrative leaders who must navigate the institutional and environmental crises that are most germane to institutions of higher education. The perspectives offered in this book remind us that it is in the chaos and uncertainty of crisis that leadership becomes most visible and most critical.

In The Dean’s List, Matthew A. Waller provides a roadmap for anyone who leads or aspires to lead a business college. Waller, dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas since 2015, offers a variety of practical tools and insights for leading effectively and confidently in the challenging, ever-evolving landscape of collegiate administration. Waller provides a field-tested framework for leadership as he explores twelve areas that are critical for leading a successful business college, including institutionalizing innovation, operating as the communicator in chief, managing the college’s finances, and delivering appreciation.

The role of a dean has changed dramatically in the last few decades. In addition to managing up, down, and sideways while dealing with students, staff, and faculty, there’s a growing demand for deans to work with parents, alumni, and donors as well as business and community leaders. The Dean’s List highlights examples from Waller’s career to illustrate practical advice for dealing with the specific challenges deans regularly face. The result is a handbook for shortening the learning curve for anyone who is, or aspires to be, the dean of a business college.
 

Junctures in Women's Leadership: Higher Education brings into sharp focus the unique attributes of women leaders in the academy and adds a new dimension of analysis to the field of women’s leadership studies. The research presented in this volume reveals not only theoretical factors of academic leadership, but also real time dynamics that give the reader deeper insights into the multiple stakeholders and situations that require nimble, relationship-based leadership, in addition to intellectual competency. Women leaders interviewed in this volume include Bernice Sandler, Juliet Villarreal García, and Johnnetta Betsch Cole.
 

When faculty climb the ranks into leadership positions, they come with years of knowledge and experience, yet they are often blindsided by the delicate interpersonal situations and political minefields they must now navigate as university administrators. What are the specific skills that faculty need to acquire when they move into administrative positions, and how can they build upon their existing abilities to excel in these roles? What skills can other mid-level leaders learn to help in their positions?

Using an engaging case study approach, Leading for Tomorrow provides readers with real-world examples that will help them reflect on their own management and communication styles. It also shows newly minted administrators how they can follow best practices while still developing a style of leadership that is authentic and uniquely their own.

The book’s case studies offer practical solutions for how to deal with emerging trends and persistent problems in the field of higher education, from decreasing state funding to political controversies on campus. Leading for Tomorrow gives readers the tools they need to get the best out of their team, manage conflicts, support student success, and instill a campus culture of innovation that will meet tomorrow’s challenges.

Next-Gen Perspectives on Leadership amplifies voices that have too often been excluded from traditional accounts of academic leadership. Centering the voices of early-career PhDs in writing studies and related fields, this book offers essential and practical leadership strategies at a pivotal moment in higher education shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of new majority students, and the growing influence of authoritarian politics.

Next-gen faculty are leading now. Through coalition-building, care work, and equity-driven initiatives, they are transforming institutions from the ground up. From labor organizing and culturally responsive curriculum design to the care-work of academic parents and the leadership of writing program administrators, the contributors in this collection model the type of coalitional leadership needed in our institutions. Structured around intergenerational dialogues, the book brings together early-career scholars with mid-career leaders—Jennifer Sano-Franchini, Christina Cedillo, and Staci Perryman-Clark—who offer sharp, reflective responses to each section, and culminates in a powerful closing essay by Carmen Kynard. These voices trace a lineage of resistance and renewal, showing how the leadership strategies of today’s emerging scholars echo and evolve the activist traditions that have long shaped writing studies. Next-gen leaders are moving beyond individualistic models of success and embracing collective, justice-oriented leadership practices. This collection invites scholars to study and teach forms of leadership that help faculty and students step into the challenging opportunities they face.

For graduate students and early-career faculty, this book offers a model of leadership that creates meaningful change outside designated leadership roles or institutional metrics. For mid-career and senior faculty, it provides a framework for recognizing and supporting the ground-level leadership already happening in their contexts. This collection is for anyone committed to leading more inclusive and sustainable academic communities and encourages faculty across generations to reimagine how to mentor, collaborate, and lead in ways that reflect the values of equity, care, and coalition.
 
Contributors: Felicita Arzu-Carmichael, Amerdeep Bajwa, Christina Cedillo, Alexandra Chapa, Anicca Cox, Tom Do, Mena Hannakachl, Alice Hays, Charisse Iglesias, Brad Jacobson, Carmen Kynard, Adele Leon, Shaylyn Marks, Sean Moxley-Kelly, Abigail Oakley, Staci Perryman-Clark, Ana Milena Ribero, Jennifer Sano-Franchini
 

Given the many pressures facing leaders across higher education, the work of crisis leadership remains an imperative for leaders at all levels. Attention tends to center on strategies for engaging in leadership both prior to and during crisis, often leaving the post-crisis period as an afterthought. This book introduces a research-informed framework for this critical, and often neglected, phase of crisis leadership. With an underlying commitment to values-based, principle-oriented, and people-centered practices, this framework consists of five leadership practices that are recognized as especially critical in the aftermath of crisis: (a) encourage learning, (b) inspire growth, (c) stimulate meaning-making, (d) pursue reinvention, and (e) advance renewal. Communication serves a critical role in each of the various dimensions of post-crisis leadership, and it is a communication orientation that can help to inform the paradoxes, processes, and patterns that arise during these periods of immense tension and, at times, transcendence.
 

Principled University Leadership: Critical Decision-Making in Academia is a personal account by university president Marc A. Johnson that draws on his extensive experience in academic administration. The book delves into four major themes: traits that lead individuals into leadership roles; economic principles influencing university decision-making; practical leadership strategies for fostering institutional progress; and approaches to navigating today’s critical challenges, including DEI and free speech. 

Rooted in Johnson’s small-town origins and passion for civic engagement, this narrative offers unique insights into the path to university leadership and the key decisions leaders face. It is an invaluable resource for aspiring and current academic leaders seeking guidance in navigating the complexities of higher education.
 

The path towards leadership starts with you. But you don’t have to go it alone. For this book, the authors sat down with many of the library leaders they most admire for a series of conversations about the aspects of the job that they find the most fascinating (and challenging). Much like the chats you might have over coffee at a conference or with a mentor, these frank discussions will nourish you with nuts-and-bolts wisdom on a diverse range of academic library management issues. Among the topics and situations broached are

• balancing personal values against the common refrain “you don’t get to be who you want to be in positions like ours”;
• five questions to ask that reveal much about organizational culture and climate;
• creating a culture of change, including why a newly promoted director chose to make the most drastic changes in the first 100 days;
• forming a “dean team” to help frame responses with consideration to institutional culture;
• the value of demystifying the budget for the entire library staff;
• using tools such as a personal “learning journal” to fuel professional development;
• cultivating a personal network by setting up meetings at local libraries during conferences;
• the risks that result from jumping into a situation too fast and boxing yourself into a corner;
• lessons learned from failed initiatives;
• examples of navigating controversies, such as a director’s response to a WPA mural with a racist message; and
• managing facilities, with an example of how injecting a previously ignored library voice into a building project led to a tripling of the space.

Between these covers you’ll find guidance, ideas, and inspiration as you continue your leadership journey.

The old aphorism “Where you stand is where you sit” rings true across many sectors of society. For academic administrators, be they provosts, vice-presidents or vice-chancellors, deans or directors, department chairs or heads, or administrative support professionals, the level and scope of responsibilities clearly influence perspectives. Yet, having a understanding of the higher-education enterprise is essential to ensuring professional success and advancement. Such understanding is at the heart of this work.
 
This handbook addresses the three key responsibilities of academic officers: inspiration, evaluation, and representation. “Getting a Good Start” deals with the promise of a new position, communicating with supervisors, and “getting around.” “Offering Inspiration and Direction” looks at the integrated scholar and “academic intrapreneurs”; diversity; the joys, challenges, and failure of professional life; and dealing with tragedies. “Guidance to Various Academic Administrators and Support Staff” examines the development, roles, and responsibilities of academic officers and institutional planning and budgeting. Reviewing the state of the institution and its personnel is covered in “Assessments and Evaluations,” and “Policies and Partnerships” deals with ethics-based policies, academic consortia and partnerships, and international outreach.
 
Throughout this valuable handbook, Smith offers background, advice, and examples that will interest both the novice and seasoned administrator as he takes us on a tour of success stories, challenges, and foibles.

Writing Center Administrators as Campus Leaders challenges the current erasure of the WCA role within discourse on campus leadership by highlighting the various ways these leaders have had transformative impacts on their institutions, emphasizing the wide range of knowledge, skills, and added value that WCAs bring to the university ecosystem.

Contributors from diverse institutions, institutional contexts, identity formations, and career paths theorize different forms of leadership from within and beyond writing centers. The first section brings together perspectives on leadership theory and practice, focusing on the practical gains offered and challenges afforded via writing center professional pathways. The second section emphasizes partnerships and networks forged through intentional and creative leadership models. In the final section, contributors consider the emotional and affective dimensions of WCA labor, offering multiple roadmaps for WCAs to transition their experiences into more recognition, resources, and broader administrative roles while underscoring the potential of inclusive, community-focused leadership for current and aspiring WCAs.

Providing key insights and practical examples, Writing Center Administrators as Campus Leaders validates and inspires current and future WCAs and informs university administrators on the ways that WCAs can and do impact higher education as true campus leaders.