Today we’d like to introduce you to Donna J. Nicol.
Hi Donna, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I am a chronicler of ‘reasonable’ revolutionaries. That is, I have spent most of my career documenting, writing about, and exposing students to people who have tried to make academic and research environments, particularly within U.S. colleges and universities, more open and less hostile to Black and Indigenous people of color, those who identify as women, LGBTQIA+, religious minorities and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. By reasonable, I’m referring to those who have worked within existing power structures, making demands that seem fair, moderate, and sensible to the average person. Yet, as the goal of this activism is to change these institutions to be more inclusive and less exclusionary, revolution is happening. From my research on ‘radical’ self-care for women of color faculty to combat cultural-identity taxation to my publications on philanthropy that has been used to undermine ethnic and gender studies programs, I focus my attention on ways underrepresented groups have combatted their exclusion from America’s hallowed halls. My forthcoming book, Black Woman on Board: Claudia Hampton, the California State University, and the Fight to Save Affirmative Action (May 2024, University of Rochester Press), examines the history of affirmative action implementation in the Cal State system and the educational activist work of Dr. Claudia Hampton, the CSU system’s first Black woman trustee, who worked tirelessly to ensure low-income and racially diverse students, faculty, and staff had access to the nation’s largest system of public higher education. Using sly civility as a strategy to amass soft power that could transform the Cal State system from within, Hampton disarmed racial biases of the trustee board by presenting herself as a reasonable political moderate who made dinner for her white male colleagues. By making dinner for these white men, Hampton was able to secure funding for affirmative action programs for students, faculty, and staff.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My biggest challenge has been that, even in 2024, I am still the “first” in every position I’ve held as an academic/administrator. I was the first non-white woman to be tenured and promoted to associate professor in Women and Gender Studies at CSU Fullerton where I was on the faculty from 2007-2017. I was the first woman to be promoted to full professor in Africana Studies at CSU Dominguez Hills, where I was chair of the department from 2017-2023, and now, as Associate Dean at CSU Long Beach, I am the first Black person in senior leadership in the history of the College of Liberal Arts. While being the “first” could be read as a mark of progress, I have had to overcome challenges with racial and gender micro-aggressions, being either presumed incompetent or labeled as being “the angry black woman.” I have experienced cultural-identity taxation that my white and male counterparts have not had to encounter, and I am expected to always speak up on behalf of white women, black men, and other people of color when I speak out about injustice within the academy though I often find myself standing alone when I do speak.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am an author, academic administrator, and public speaker. Currently, I serve as the Associate Dean for Personnel and Curriculum in the College of Liberal Arts at Cal State Long Beach and professor of history. In this position, I am responsible for faculty recruitment, hiring, development, and training for department chairs. I also supervise the curriculum review process for 27 departments within the college. Previously, I was department chair and tenured professor in Africana Studies at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and prior to that, I was a tenured professor in Women and Gender Studies at Cal State Fullerton. For the past two decades, my work on race, gender, philanthropy, and has appeared in academic journals, edited books, and opinion columns for news outlets like Al Jazeera English. I have also lent my expertise as a historian to several documentary projects, including Al Jazeera’s Race for America, Respect My Crown, Coach Emily, and A Greater Legacy.
I have been an invited speaker for a wide variety of audiences. For several years, I served on the African American Scholar Roundtable during Black History Month for the City of Los Angeles. I am regularly called to speak about the intersections of race, gender, and history in higher education. I have given talks or served on panels at CSU Channel Islands, Florida State University, City University of London, just to name a few. Most recently, I served as a panelist for the Empowering Women of Color Conference at UC Berkeley. I am a regularly invited expert on conservative philanthropy and race at the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy’s annual Philanthropy and Higher Education meeting of scholars, foundations, and academic policy organizations.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up in Willowbrook (an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County). Like so many Black families, both sides of my family moved into the area following my honorable discharge of my maternal great-grandfather and paternal grandfather from the U.S. Army to avoid the overt racism of the Jim Crow South during the Second Great Migration. Willowbrook offered large land lots for suburban living which attracted many working-class families like my own to the area. Yet, because there were so few services in Willowbrook, most of my family (including myself) went to school in nearby Compton.
My grandmother was one of the founders of the Office for Black Community Development, which conducted a food needs analysis survey for the residents of Watts and Willowbrook in the late 1970s, which led to the creation of the Kenneth Hahn Plaza off Wilmington and 120th Street. Willowbrook was a food desert since the Watts Riots in 1965 until the plaza opened in 1987. As a child, I helped my grandmother conduct the survey and when her organization was awarded a Black Supermarket Training grant from Governor Jerry Brown, I helped run the community store that had opened across the street from the Imperial Courts projects. My exposure to community activism at a young age influenced my pursuit of higher education and my career as an academic.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.donnajnicol.com
- Instagram: @blackwomanonboard
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-gough-nicol-ph-d-572a714/
Image Credits
Matt Brown
CSUDH Photographer
