Cher Weixia Chen

Dr. Cher Weixia Chen is an Associate Professor in the School of Integrative Studies, the founder of the Human Rights and Global Justice Initiative, a Senior Scholar of the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, and a faculty fellow of the Institute for a Sustainable Earth, George Mason University. Dr. Chen co-developed the undergraduate Social Justice and Human Rights concentration, Social Justice and Human Rights minor, and MAIS Social Justice and Human Rights concentration. She coordinates and teaches courses in the International Studies, Legal Studies, and Social Justice and Human Rights concentrations. Dr. Chen is the recipient of the 2021 GMU Oscar Mentoring Excellence Award and the 2024 Human Rights in Higher Education Award by University and College Consortium for Human Rights Education (UCCHRE).

Dr. Chen’s scholarship focuses on the issues of human rights (particularly the rights of marginalized groups such as women’s rights and indigenous rights), the well-being of social justice and human rights activists, and international and comparative legal studies. Her co-authored book “Activism, Burnout and Community in Higher Education: Narratives of College Student Activists” was just published last November.

Julie E. Owen

JULIE E. OWEN (she/her) is Associate Professor of Leadership Studies at the School of Integrative Studies, George Mason University, where she coordinates the curricular leadership program. She is also program faculty with Mason’s Higher Education Program and is affiliate faculty with Women and Gender Studies. 

Owen has 30 years of higher education experience and has published 8 books and over 60 refereed publications, and has given over 150 invited and scholarly presentations. Her most recent books are Activism, Burnout, and Community: Stories of College Student Activists (Routledge, 2024; with coauthors Drs. Chen, McCarron, & Grande); A Research Agenda for Leadership Learning and Development Through Higher Education, co-edited with Dr. Susan R. Komives (Edward Elgar Press, UK, 2023); and We are the Leaders We’ve Been Waiting For: Women and Leadership Development in College (Stylus/Routledge, 2020) which was recently translated into Japanese. She is committed to using her voice to advocate for positive social change leading to more equitable leadership for all, and to consider how identities and social power shape practice. Her research explores the intersections of leadership identity and women’s adult development, as well as the scholarship of liberatory leadership teaching and learning. 

Steve Grande

Steve Grande, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Graduate Psychology and the Program Director of the College Student Personnel Administration program at James Madison University (JMU). Steve has previously served as Director of Service-Learning at JMU, Executive Director of Civic and Global Engagement at Mary Baldwin University, and Director of Orientation at JMU. He earned his PhD in Student Affairs from the University of Maryland and has researched, published, presented, and taught courses on topics like leadership, Service-Learning, civic engagement, multiculturalism, and student identity. Steve has been actively involved in local community initiatives related to the environment, poverty, racism, and the arts. 

Graziella Pagliarulo McCarron

Graziella Pagliarulo McCarron (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Leadership Studies in the School of Integrative Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. She also serves as graduate faculty for the Higher Education Program, with a focus on student development theory. As a former student/academic affairs practitioner and as a current leadership studies faculty member, Graziella has over 20 years of experience centered around holistic student development, increasing access to higher education, mattering, community-building, and creating learning climates that transcend time and place.
https://integrative.gmu.edu/people/gmccarro 

Heather Shea

Heather D. Shea, Ph.D. (she, her, hers) currently works as the director of Pathway Programs in Undergraduate Student Success in the Office of the Provost at Michigan State University. Her career in student affairs spans over two decades and five different campuses and involves experiences in many different functional areas including residence life, multicultural affairs, women, gender, and LGBTQA programs, student activities, leadership development, and commuter/non-traditional student services—she identifies as a student affairs generalist. 

Heather is committed to praxis, contributing to scholarship, and preparing the next generation of educational leaders. She regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate-level classes and each summer she leads a 6-credit undergraduate education abroad program in Europe for students in teacher education. Heather is actively engaged on a national level in student affairs. She served as President of ACPA-College Student Educators International from 2023-2024. She was honored as a Diamond Honoree by the ACPA Foundation. Heather completed her PhD at Michigan State University in higher, adult, and lifelong education. She is a transplant to the Midwest; Heather grew up in Colorado, completed her undergraduate degrees and master’s degrees at Colorado State University, and worked professionally in Arizona and Idaho until 2013 when she and her family moved to mid-Michigan.