Dr. William A. Smith brings exceptional skills to this leadership position as a researcher with national and international distinction, former administrator in our College of Education and the U, and as professor in ECS and Ethnic Studies. He also serves as the Associate Dean for Diversity, Access, & Equity in the College of Education as well as the Special Assistant to the President & NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative. Dr. Smith is the co-editor (with Philip Altbach & Kofi Lomotey) of the book, The Racial Crisis in American Higher Education: The Continuing Challenges for the 21st Century (2002). His work primarily focuses on his theoretical contribution of Racial Battle Fatigue which is the cumulative emotional, psychological, physiological, and behavioral effects that racial microaggressions have on People of Color. Dr. Smith’s work has appeared in such journals as The Journal of Negro Education, Harvard Educational Review, Educational Administration Quarterly, and American Behavioral Scientist. Dr. Smith is a former postdoctoral fellow for both the Ford Foundation and the Center for Urban Educational Research and Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a former Research Associate with the CHOICES Project at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has worked as an administrator or professor at Eastern Illinois University, Governors State University (University Park, IL), Western Illinois University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Eastern Illinois University (BA in psychology and MS in guidance and counseling) and his Ph.D. is from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (educational policy studies, sociology/social psychology of higher education).