Behind the Scenes of Student Affairs
Emerald Publishing
Identity and Practice in Higher Education and Student Affairs series
Expected 2027
About the Series
Identity & Practice in Higher Education-Student Affairs
Series Editors: Pietro A. Sasso and Shelley Price-Williams
Identity & Practice in Higher Education-Student Affairs (IPHESA) is a book series which seeks to interrogate the role of higher education and student affairs administration in shaping college student identity, engagement, and student success. In doing so, the series reaffirms the transformative potential of the college experience to support students themselves in their planning and execution so that they can be real actors in their own learning, one that requires reflection and judgment. The series explores issues of identity and practice to examine how the diversity of college students can experience cocurricular spaces as agents of their own learning. It recognizes that inequities exist across these socially constructed spaces and are experienced differently across college student populations. Book subjects include, but are not limited to, such themes of student affairs within specific institutional types (liberal arts, HBCU, etc.); exploration of specific functional administrative areas (residence life, educational opportunity programs, first-year experience); student conduct administration; student identity development; student mental health; (dis)ability; academic advising or student retention; campus/student spirituality; LGBTQ+ experiences; racial and cultural identity development; student involvement (student organizations, student activities, student unions); and handbooks/guides for student affairs professionals.
Other Titles in This Series
- Interweaving Voice and Practice: Preparing Professionals for a Pluralistic Academy
- Counter-Narratives of Resistance for Women of Color in Higher Education: We Are Not Impostors
- Critical Praxis of College Men and Masculinities: Experiences at the Intersections
- Beyond the Campus: The Power of E-Mentoring in Modern Higher Education
- Post-Truth’s Assault on America’s Schools and Colleges
- Shaking the Table: Survival and Healing Amongst Identity Center Practitioners
- Do Better: Critical Narratives of Disabled Graduate Students in Higher Education
- Human Flourishing and Higher Education
- Institutional Diversity in American Postsecondary Education
- Affirming Identity, Advancing Belonging, and Amplifying Voice in Sororities and Fraternities
- Latinx College Students: Innovations in Mental Health, Advocacy, and Social Justice Programs
- Stir What You’ve Got: Insights from a College President
- Identity in Supervision: Understanding Who Works for You and Who You Work for in Higher Education
- Still Working While Black: The Untold Stories of Student Affairs Practitioners
- Working While Black: The Untold Stories of Student Affairs Practitioners
About the Book
Lessons from the Chair draws on nearly two decades inside student affairs to examine what it actually costs Black professionals to hold institutions accountable to the values those institutions claim to practice. Written as a blend of personal narrative and professional reflection, the book moves chapter by chapter through the moments that shaped Dr. Williams’ own understanding of mattering: the meetings where care was assumed rather than extended, the crises where leadership was expected without support, and the quiet decisions that either affirm or erode whether a person believes they belong inside the institution they serve. It is both a record of what was lived and a working guide for professionals, supervisors, and institutions ready to build the conditions this book describes, not simply name them.
Why I wrote it
The most important reason behind writing this book is the need to expose the gap between higher education’s stated commitment to care, equity, and belonging and the lived experiences of Black professionals who are often expected to advance those values while being denied them within their own workplaces.
I wrote Lessons from the Chair because too many Black professionals have been expected to care for institutions, colleagues, and students while working in environments that have not demonstrated the same care for us. The COVID-19 pandemic, the racial reckoning following the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, and my own transition into senior-level leadership made this contradiction impossible to ignore. Black professionals were being asked to lead, respond to crises, and support entire campus communities while privately carrying grief, racial trauma, professional isolation, and questions about whether our own lives and well-being truly mattered.
This book gives language and visibility to experiences that are too often endured in silence. I did not write it to seek sympathy or simply recount hardship. I wrote it to affirm Black professionals, prepare future practitioners, and challenge institutional leaders to examine the systems and workplace cultures they create.
At its heart, this book is both a testimony and a call to action. It asks higher education to move beyond celebrating the resilience of Black professionals and begin creating environments in which we are equitably compensated, genuinely supported, fully valued, and able to thrive without sacrificing our humanity.
Who it is for
Black professionals in student affairs and higher education who have carried this and have not seen it named. Graduate students and new practitioners preparing to enter the field. Supervisors, deans, and vice presidents responsible for the workplace cultures their staff live inside. And anyone who has been asked to build belonging for others while questioning whether they have it themselves.
Be notified when it publishes
Send a note to drkrwspeaks@gmail.com with “Lessons from the Chair” in the subject line and I will let you know when a publication date is set, along with information on availability for course adoption and bulk orders.
About the author
Dr. Kyle R. Williams has spent nearly two decades in student affairs, in residence life, student conduct, case management, intercultural engagement, and the dean’s office, at institutions ranging from small liberal arts colleges to large research universities. He teaches the law of higher education and higher education leadership at Auburn University, serves on the faculty of the Donald A. Gehring Institute, and has contributed to the national standards that govern student conduct practice. His doctoral research examined the influence of mattering on Black men’s intent to persist at a regional predominantly white institution.
Dr. Kyle R. Williams 