University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses July 2019 STEERING AGAINST THE TIDE? PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP AND DIVERSITY AT AMHERST COLLEGE Letha Gayle-Brissett University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Educational Leadership Commons, and the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Gayle-Brissett, Letha, "STEERING AGAINST THE TIDE? PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP AND DIVERSITY AT AMHERST COLLEGE" (2019). Doctoral Dissertations. 1591. https://doi.org/10.7275/14167615 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1591 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. STEERING AGAINST THE TIDE? PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP AND DIVERSITY AT AMHERST COLLEGE A Dissertation Presented by LETHA D. GAYLE-BRISSETT Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2019 College of Education © Copyright by Letha D. Gayle-Brissett 2019 All Rights Reserved STEERING AGAINST THE TIDE? PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP AND DIVERSITY AT AMHERST COLLEGE A Dissertation Presented by LETHA D. GAYLE-BRISSETT Approved as to style and content by: ____________________________________ Ryan S. Wells, Chair ____________________________________ Sharon F. Rallis, Member ____________________________________ Carlene J. Edie, Member ____________________________________ Jennifer Randall Associate Dean of Academic Affairs College of Education DEDICATION To my loving, caring, patient and supportive family ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A special thanks to my family and friends, my dissertation committee, my EPRA Cohort colleagues and the research participants.