Assistant Professor in the Department of Adult and Higher Education at Oregon State University
About
Tenisha Tevis is from Sacramento, California, where her academic career began at a local community college. After two and a half years, she transferred to a comprehensive regional 4-year institution, earning both a bachelor's and Masters in Sociology. Falling in love with statistics and having an improved understanding of raced-based outcomes, she pursued a position to be a research analyst for a research center focused on delinquency, crime, and education.
Working with leading anthropologists, criminologists, and educators in the state of California, she collected and analyzed program data that revealed recidivism can be interrupted and academic achievement of (minority) youth was beyond possible. Such research experiences further led to the opportunity to develop the first research method curriculum at her alma mater and teach courses in both quantitative research methods and theory at the postsecondary level. The minute she walked into the classroom she knew this is where she was suppose to be. Wanting to know more, after almost two years, she then applied to and was accepted to her top choice, interdisciplinary, doctoral program. In addition to being a teaching and graduate assistant, in her third year, she was given the opportunity to continue teaching, adjunct, in the criminal justice program. Combined with her doctoral studies, this further broadened her understanding of the role race, socioeconomic status, policy, and White leadership plays in the myriad outcomes for persons of color. Moreover, her teaching made her a popular name on campus, earned her high evaluations, and she was recognized as being the most influential instructor students ever had.
The sum of these experiences were foundational to her role as administrative-faculty, overseeing institutional-wide programs and services; as well as undergirded her desire to be a tenure track faculty member, which is the dream role she is in today. In her third year, she is honored to be the colleague of some of the best reseachers in the field of education; and represent Black intellectualism.
Current Work:
Tenisha Tevis is a critical advocacy scholar who seeks to advance the equity, inclusion, and retention efforts of upper-level administrators on behalf of students who have historically been marginalized by institutions of higher education. Being pragmatic her methodological approach, she has produced national conference presentations, book chapters, and journal articles for the population whose practice she seeks to directly impact.
Centering her research questions on diverse groups and White leadership, she contributes to two overarching areas: students’ transition to college and higher education leadership. Specifically, she examines the underexplored role postsecondary administrators play in the transitional process; and how they address the polarizing effects of bias. To that end, she examines the social, cultural, and/or political forces that influence postsecondary administrators’ agency and practice.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Bias, leadership, inclusion, retention, disability
