Faculty Fellows: Dr. Lisa Merriweather
Project Description
As the College of Education Faculty Fellow, I will be working on three projects that respectively focus on building capacity for equity and diversity through climate, access, and vitality. The most recent COACHE survey and the College of Education diversity audit Findings indicate that opportunities for improvement in terms of climate, access, and vitality exist within the College of Education. The projects, to be carried out over a two‐year appointment, would contribute to the mission to be a leader in educational equity through excellence and engagement and align with aspects of the College’s strategic plan. The first project focuses on climate and involves organizing and developing affinity groups in the College of Education. Affinity groups are created based on shared interests, shared characteristics, and shared goals. While there are certainly others, I would like to develop the following two affinity groups: Equity and Social Justice affinity group and an African American female faculty and staff affinity group. The second project stresses the importance of faculty professional development for achieving the College’s mission by promoting access to learning, personal growth, and research competency through the development of a consortium focused on equity and social justice in education. The final component is aimed at the vitality of minoritized graduate students, particularly at the doctoral level. I will be extending my research on culturally responsive mentoring practice with the ultimate goal of developing a model of effective culturally responsive mentoring that would in turn inform training and development of mentors in graduate education.
Biography
Lisa R. Merriweather is an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. She received her PhD in Adult Education with a graduate certificate in Qualitative Inquiry from the University of Georgia in 2004. Her research focuses on issues of equity and social justice within the historical discourse of adult education, informal education, and doctoral education. She explores the critical philosophy and sociology of race and antiblack racism and employs Africana Philosophy, Critical Race Theory, and qualitative and historical methodology to investigate topics found at the nexus of race and adult education.
Dr. Merriweather is dedicated to the project of communalism, guided by the spirits of Sankofa, and inspired by the ethos of Ubuntu all of which provide ideological grounding for the work in which she engages. Recent projects include service learning as informal science education as a means of stimulating interest in STEM among underrepresented racial populations; culturally responsive mentoring as embodied by the afrocentric concept of other mothering; race pedagogy in adult learning; and orality as informal learning in African American communities.