Workshop on Achieving Equity in Student Learning and Success

University of Arkansas

Tia Brown McNair is the vice president in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success at the Association of American Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C.

The "Becoming a Student Ready University: Achieving Equity in Student Learning and Success" workshops, led by Tia Brown McNair, will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 17, in the Arkansas Union Ballroom. All UA faculty, staff, graduate students and administrators are invited to attend one of the half-day sessions from either 9 a.m. to noon or 1-4 p.m. Lunch provided at noon for all participants. Registration is available through Hogsync.

The workshops are sponsored in part by the Teaching and Faculty Support Center, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Dean of Students, the Center for Multicultural and Diversity Education, the Office of Student Success, and the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. The goal is to bring diverse groups of people from across campus to discuss equity in student access to resources, programs, and initiatives that contribute to their learning and success.

Tia Brown McNair is the vice president in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success at Association of American Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C. She oversees both funded projects and the association's continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact educational practices, and student success, including its Network for Academic Renewal series of yearly working conferences.

McNair also directs Association of American Colleges and Universities' Summer Institute on High-Impact Educational Practices and Student Success. McNair serves as the project director for several of the association's initiatives: "Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation," "Strengthening Completion Pathways and Career Success by Developing Intentional Learning", "Committing to Equity and Inclusive Excellence: Campus-Based Strategies for Student Success," and "Purposeful Pathways: Faculty Planning and Curricular Coherence."

She directed the association's projects on "Advancing Underserved Student Success through Faculty Intentionality in Problem-Centered Learning," "Advancing Roadmaps for Community College Leadership to Improve Student Learning and Success," and "Developing a Community College Roadmap. McNair chaired the association's Equity Working Group that was part of the General Education Maps and Markers (GEMs) project that represented a large-scale, systematic effort to provide "design principles" for 21st-century learning and long-term student success.

She is the lead author of the book Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016). McNair is a co-author on the publication Assessing Underserved Students' Engagement in High-Impact Practices.  Prior to joining Association of American Colleges and Universities, McNair served as the assistant director of the National College Access Network in Washington.

McNair's previous experience also includes serving as a social scientist/assistant program director in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources at the National Science Foundation, director of University Relations at the University of Charleston in Charleston, West Virginia; the statewide coordinator for the Educational Talent Search Project at the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission; and the interim associate director of admissions and recruitment services at West Virginia State University. She has served as an adjunct faculty member at several institutions where she taught first-year English courses. McNair earned her bachelor's degree in political science and English at James Madison University and holds an M.A. in English from Radford University and a doctorate in higher education administration from George Washington University.