Tonisha Lane

Dr. Tonisha B. Lane is an associate professor of Higher Education at Virginia Tech and program leader for the Graduate Certificate in Higher Education Administration. She earned her PhD in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education (HALE) from Michigan State University (MSU). Before joining Virginia Tech, she served as an assistant professor of Higher Education at the University of South Florida. Dr. Lane has held a variety of administrative and student affairs roles across both two-year and four-year institutions. Her experience spans residence life, multicultural engineering programs, academic affairs, distance learning, and federal service with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education

Dr. Lane’s research agenda examines how structural inequities are perpetuated, reinforced, and mitigated in postsecondary education. She facilitates this work through three strands: the impact of STEM enrichment programs on access and retention; the experiences and outcomes of marginalized groups in STEM; and the institutional and individual factors that shape the inclusion and well-being of Black students in higher education. Dr. Lane primarily employs qualitative methodological approaches in her research, which has received support from the Spencer Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and NASA. Her recent projects include building research capacity in STEM departments at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), examining remote undergraduate research experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring STEM pathways for underrepresented learners, and investigating the recruitment and retention of early-career women of color faculty in STEM. She has secured over $10 million in grant funding to support this work.

Dr. Lane has authored over 30 refereed journal articles and book chapters, and has delivered more than 40 refereed conference presentations at leading national and international conferences, including the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), ACPA–College Student Educators International (ACPA), and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Her scholarship appears in top-tier journals such as Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Urban Education, Equity & Excellence in Education, and CBE–Life Sciences Education. Her work is also featured in several edited volumes, including Latin* Students in Engineering: An Intentional Focus on a Growing Population, Building Mentorship Networks to Support Black Women: A Guide to Succeeding in the Academy, Women of Color and STEM: Navigating the Double Bind in Higher Education, and Intersectionality and Higher Education: Identity and Inequality on College Campuses.

In recognition of her research, professional service, and civic engagement, Dr. Tonisha Lane has received numerous honors. Her recent awards include the ACPA–College Student Educators International (ACPA) Diamond Honoree (class of 2024), the 2021–2022 Excellence in Research and Creative Scholarship Award from Virginia Tech’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, and an ACPA Emerging Scholar (class of 2018). She has also been recognized as a McKnight Faculty Fellow (2017), ACPA Advocate Award recipient (2017), Asa G. Hilliard III and Barbara A. Sizemore Fellow by AERA (2015), and a King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellow at Michigan State University (2014).