Deniece Dortch is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration at The George Washington University. Dr. Dortch’s research and teaching grapples with systemic oppression across multiple axes. She uses critical phenomenological approaches to understanding how African American undergraduate and graduate students experience and respond to race and racism at predominantly white institutions of higher education. Dr. Dortch studies the socialization of undergraduate and graduate students of color. She is especially interested in how psychological violence and fear is experienced, manifested and reproduced in the academy. Her most recent projects explore intra-racial relationships, racial agency and their effects on persistence in higher education.

Dr. Dortch’s publications address topics such as the self-efficacy of graduate students and the sense of belonging of undergraduate students of color at predominantly white institutions. Prior to joining the faculty at George Washington University, Dr. Dortch was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Utah where she created the African American Doctoral Scholars Initiative, a comprehensive mentoring program focused on graduate student socialization into the academy. A former Program Director at Texas AM University, Dr. Dortch also co-founded Sista to Sista, a co-curricular leadership development program designed to foster a sense of connectedness amongst Black female college athletes. Dr. Dortch is a returned United States Peace Corps Volunteer who served in both Morocco and Jamaica.

She earned her Ph.D. in Higher & Postsecondary Education Leadership from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an Ed.M. in Higher & Postsecondary Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and a M.A.in Intercultural Service, Leadership & Management from the School for International Training in Vermont and a B.A. in Spanish from Eastern Michigan University.