Dr. Stacey Pearson-Wharton discusses not only the harms of racism but also the ways those who experience racism can heal from the interpersonal, organizational, and systemic experiences. Dr. Stacey offers suggestions for finding stability and safety, soothing, mourning the loss, cultivating counternarratives, and finding power and control toward thriving.

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Katie Rose Guest Pryal’s bookYour Kid Belongs Here pushes back on ableist systems affecting neurodivergent (ND) children, college students, and the rest of us. Drawing on personal stories as a parent and expertise as a scholar, Pryal shows how exclusion is less about a child’s differences or behavior and more about the norms that institutions enforce. The book argues for a cultural shift: from viewing neurodivergence as a deficit to embracing it as a difference that enriches learning communities.

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This episode was inspired by the recent article by Drs. Shaun Harper and Oscar Patrón, Three Decades of Campus Racial Climate Studies and 25 New Directions for Future Research, which builds on the foundational work of Dr. Sylvia Hurtado. Together, their scholarship has profoundly shaped how we understand race, racism, and belonging in higher education. We’ll discuss how campus racial climate research has evolved over the past 30 years, what challenges and opportunities remain, and where this critical field is headed next.

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In this special episode of Student Affairs NOW, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the ACPA Coalition for Disability and 35 years since the passage of the ADA. Panelists Erin Mayo, Kat Hurley, Mike Kutnak, Antonia De Michiel, and Spencer Scruggs join us to discuss the past, present, and future of disability in student affairs and higher education. From challenging ableism to promoting universal design and inclusive practice, this conversation is a call to deepen our collective commitment to access and equity for all.

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Dr. Annmarie Caño discusses her book Leading Toward Liberation: How to Build Cultures of Thriving in Higher Education. This book offers a transformative approach to leadership in higher education that centers justice, healing, and systemic change. Drawing from liberation psychology and Latin American liberation theology, Annmarie Caño advocates for a model of leadership, acompañamiento (accompaniment), which includes centering inner work, reading reality, and engaging in a process of co-creating with others.

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Authentic relationships between Black and white women in higher education are often difficult to cultivate—made more so by the persistent realities of misogynoir and the role white women can play in perpetuating harm. In this powerful episode, co-hosted by Heather Shea and Raechele Pope, we’re joined by Drs. Christina Holmgren, Leah Fulton, and Jayne Sommers to explore the preliminary findings of their ongoing research with Black women in student affairs. Together, they share stories, insights, and a new model for building reciprocal, accountable relationships that move us beyond performative allyship and toward real connection and change.

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Listen in on a conversation with the ACPA Asian Pacific American Network (APAN) Leadership Team. While at the 2025 ACPA Conference in Long Beach, host Glenn DeGuzman invited members of the APAN leadership team, Sam Thornton, Wilson Deng, Em Nakamura, IC Ulep, and Yi Xuen Tay into his kitchen for a sit down conversation on a variety of API related topics and issues currently on the top of their minds. APAN represents APIDA issues and advocates for programs, services, research, and actions within the leadership of the Coalition for Multicultural Affairs and ACPA: College Student Educators International. The APAN Leadership team brought their voices to the table to speak about and react to issues that are relevant to them and their work on APAN and on their respective college campuses.

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In this episode of Student Affairs NOW, host Heather Shea welcomes Dr. Z Nicolazzo, author of the influential book Trans* in College: Transgender Students’ Strategies for Navigating Campus Life and the Institutional Politics of Inclusion, along with two of her doctoral students, Clar Gobuyan and Pin-Ru Su. Together, they explore the evolving landscape of support for transgender students in higher education, delving into concepts of kinship, chosen family, and institutional inclusion. Tune in as they share insights on how universities can better support trans students' academic success and well-being through innovative research and practice.

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This episode examines the current status, and future directions of race and indigeneity in student affairs and higher education. The episode offers a brief glimpse of the evolution of ACPA as an example of one professional association grappling with and addressing these complex issues.

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This episode discusses the identities and experiences of Jewish students on campus today.. Many Jewish students have reported feeling unsafe and traumatized amidst the rise of antisemitism on campus, in our nation, and across the globe. Our guest, Dr. Elisa Abes, offers a critical perspective to deeply examine the realities of anti-semitism on college campuses and its impact on Jewish students.

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