Valerie K.

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT VALERIE K.

As the 15th President of JCSU (the only HBCU in the City of Charlotte) I am the University’s Chief Executive Officer. Working to sustain existing and create new strategic partnerships with businesses, corporations, professional groups, and schools, I collaborate with colleagues to ensure that our students receive high-quality academic and extracurricular experiences.Rooted in legacy and tradition, JCSU was established 156 years ago to serve formerly enslaved Black people. Today, the university continues to cultivate talented students to be global leaders who embody a compelling sense of social and civic responsibility. This cultivation of our students is important, given that the landscape of higher education continues to shift in unsettling directions, especially for Black people and other People of Color. However, at JCSU, we commit to positively shaping and actively leading the future of higher education in ways that attend to students’ academic, communal, personal, professional, and social needs. This is what it means to be a part of the “Golden Bulls” family.As a scholar, my research examines the literacies and community engagements of youth and adults in and out of schools. I have authored articles and books on race, place, and literacy. My book, Harlem On Our Minds: Place, Race, and the Literacies of Urban Youth, received the 2012 Outstanding Book of the Year Award from the American Educational Research Association. Among my many other books, I am co-editor of Race, Justice, and Activism in Literacy Instruction and the co-author of Where Is the Justice? Engaged Pedagogies in Schools and Communities. I have received grants from the Spencer Foundation, National Council of Teachers of English, Corporation for National and Community Service, Fulbright Foundation, Battelle Endowment, Grable Foundation, Heinz Endowments, and McElhattan Foundation. I am recipient of the Rewey Belle Inglis Award for Outstanding Women in English Education from NCTE, the People of Color Leadership Award from NCTE, and, among others, the Distinguished Faculty Advising Award from the Council of Graduate Students at OSU. I was a Fellow in the Big 10 Academic Leadership program and in the HERS Leadership program, and I participated in the inaugural Senior Leadership Program at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2019, I was inducted into the AERA Fellows Program and in 2021, I became an ACE Fellow. Currently, I am Past-President of NCTE. Also, I am a Lifetime Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated