Adler University President Raymond E. Crossman, Ph.D. is a founding member of the LGTBQ Presidents in Higher Education, an organization committed to advocacy for the rights of LGBTQ people, inside and outside of the of higher ed. He joined the organization’s LGBTQ Leadership Institute this summer and chaired the panel discussion on LGBTQ Leadership in Higher Education on June 18.

The discussion focused on the forthcoming book, LGBTQ Leadership in Higher Education, from Johns Hopkins University Press. The book’s coauthors include President Crossman and the other panelists:

• Jim Gandre, president, Manhattan School of Music
• Theo Kalikow, president emerita, University of Maine, Farmington
• Daniel López, president, Harold Washington College
• Regina Stanback Stroud, CEO, RSS Consulting

“Across our essays, we attempt to address why LGBTQ leadership matters at this moment and more broadly why diversity, inclusion, and equity in leadership is so important to meet today’s challenges for higher ed and for human rights,” President Crossman said.

LGBTQ Leadership in Higher Education features chapters from 15 LGBTQ higher education leaders and explores the issues and opportunities faced by the first generation of out LGBTQ presidents and chancellors in the United States.

“I think that’s what makes us really special in positions where we can make more of a difference, because of our intersections, we have fewer blinders, so we have an opportunity to see things that others may not and therefore a responsibility to do the best we can to give a voice to and to support marginalized groups,” Daniel López said.

The authors wrote chapters from the prospective of lived and specific experiences and shared some of their takeaways during the discussion.

“What I did with this project was to really focus on my journey and how I got there.,” López said. “I think it’s a journey that many of us have gone through.”

The book shares differing perspectives on why LGBTQ leadership matters, to whom, and how it matters. They share many different answers and experiences throughout their essays.

“As presidents, chancellors, and institutional leaders, we navigate these complex social and political dynamics for the service of our own professional lives, but more so in the service of things that are much bigger than ourselves and that is others,” Regina Stanback Stroud said.

LGBTQ Leadership in Higher Education is set to be released in June 2022 released around Pride Month.