Tonisha Lane

Tonisha Lane, Ph.D., is an associate professor of higher education at Virginia Tech and program leader for the Graduate Certificate Program in Higher Education Administration. She earned her doctorate in higher, adult and lifelong education at Michigan State University. Prior to becoming a faculty member, she worked in student and academic affairs in two-year and four-year institutions in roles such as residence life, multicultural engineering programs, and distance learning.

Dr. Lane studies the experiences and outcomes of underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Her research also focuses on the participation and achievement of Black students and professionals in higher education. She is a co-principal investigator on several National Science Foundation-funded research projects, including Bulls-Engineering Youth Experience for Promoting Relationships, Identity Development, & Empowerment (Bulls-EYE PRIDE), The AGEP Florida Alliance Model: Improving Minority Women Success in STEM Faculty Careers, and Graduate Student Scholarships to Advance Community Engaged Solutions to the Grand Challenge of Managing Nitrogen (S-STEM).

Dr. Lane has also been received several honors, including McKnight Fellow (2017), ACPA Emerging Scholar (2018), and a National Center for Institutional Diversity Emerging Scholar. Her work has been published in CBE-Life Sciences Education, Journal of Equity and Excellence in Education, and Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory, and Practice.