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).