Damani White-Lewis is an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Pennsylvania. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. White-Lewis studies racial inequality in academic careers and contexts using multiple methods and theories from organizational behavior and social psychology.

Dr. White-Lewis’ work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) and has appeared in The Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, The Review of Higher Education, American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, and others. His dissertation received the 2020 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the National Association of Chief Diversity Officers. He has also received honors and awards from the Association for the Study of Higher Education, the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education, and the American Educational Research Association. As a public scholar, he has been featured in outlets such as Inside Higher Ed and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, and regularly advises college campuses and external organizations on addressing issues related to the academic profession, racial equity, and institutional transformation and systemic change in higher education.

Research Interests and Current Projects

Dr. White-Lewis works to (a) identify mechanisms (e.g., paradigms, practices, policies, and cultures) that drive racial inequality in the academic workforce, (b) develop interventions that enhance equity and improve decision-making contexts, and (c) understand institutional and departmental change processes to embed interventions within higher education institutions and larger academic systems. To that end, he is currently working on several projects that address faculty hiring, promotion & tenure, mentorship, and retention.

Dr. White-Lewis is completing a series of studies that use ethnographic, case study, and experimental methods to understand different dimensions of (in)equity in faculty hiring. Additionally, given the disproportionate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) labor assigned to and expected of racially minoritized faculty, he is the co-principal investigator of an NSF-funded study to understand how DEI work is credited and weighed in recommendations for tenure. Dr. White-Lewis also leads a series of studies that uses data from Harvard University’s Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) study to examine trends in faculty retention and departure.

Publications

Selected Publications

Faculty Hiring

Culpepper, D., White-Lewis, D., O’Meara, K., Templeton, L., & Anderson, J. (2023). Do rubrics live up to their promise? Examining how faculty search committees use rubrics in candidate evaluation and selection. The Journal of Higher Education.
O’Meara, K., Templeton, L., White-Lewis, D., Culpepper, D., & Anderson, J. (2023). The safest bet: Identifying and assessing risk in faculty selection. American Educational Research Journal.
White-Lewis, D. (2022). The role of administrative and academic leadership in advancing faculty diversity. The Review of Higher Education, 45(3), 337–364.
White-Lewis, D. (2021). Before the ad: How departments generate hiring priorities that support or avert faculty diversity. Teachers College Record, 123(1).
White-Lewis, D. (2020). The facade of fit in faculty search processes. The Journal of Higher Education, 91(6), 833–857.

Faculty Mentoring

White-Lewis, D., Romero, A., Gutzwa, J., & Hurtado, S. (2022). “Moving the science forward”: Faculty perceptions of culturally diverse mentor training benefits, challenges, and supports. CBE – Life Sciences Education, 21(1), 1–10.
White-Lewis, D., & McLewis, C. (2021). Deeper than the pool: The merit of mentoring in advancing faculty diversity. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, San Juan, PR.
Fries-Britt, S., & White-Lewis, D. (2020). In pursuit of meaningful relationships: How Black males perceive faculty interactions in STEM. The Urban Review, 52(3), 521540.

Faculty Retention

White-Lewis, D., Culpepper, D., O’Meara, K., Templeton, J., & Anderson, J. (In Press). One foot out the door: Interrogating the “risky hire” narrative in STEM faculty careers. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. Doi: 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2023045539
White-Lewis, D., O’Meara, K., Mathews, K., & Havey, N. (2022). Leaving the institution or leaving the academy? Analyzing the factors that faculty weigh in actual departure decisions. Research in Higher Education.
O’Meara, K., Fink, J., White-Lewis, D. (2017). Who’s looking? Examining the role of gender and rank in faculty outside offers. NASPA Journal about Women in Higher Education, 10(1), 64–79.

Departmental, Institutional, and Systemic Change

O’Meara, K., Templeton, L., Culpepper, D., & White-Lewis, D. (2022). Translating equity-minded principles into faculty evaluation reform. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education (ACE).
White-Lewis, D., Bennett, J., & Redd, K. (2022). Framing the dialog for systemic equity reform in STEM faculty careers. Washington, D.C.: Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU).
Cobian, K. P., White-Lewis, D., Hurtado, S., & Ramos, H. V. (2022). Implementing case study design to evaluate diverse institutions and STEM education contexts: Lessons and key areas for systematic study. New Directions for Evaluation: Evaluating a National Biomedical Diversity Initiative.
Hurtado, S., White-Lewis, D., & Norris K. (2017). Advancing inclusive science and systemic change: The convergence of national aims and institutional goals in implementing and assessing biomedical science training. BioMed Central Proceedings, 11(17), 1–13.

Courses

EDUC 5800: The Professoriate: Foundations, Careers, and Current Issues

EDUC 6806: Organizational Change in Higher Education

EDUC 5800: Mixed Methods in Higher Education Research

News & Media

Penn GSE News

10 tips for achieving a more diverse faculty

Hiring tips from Penn GSE’s Damani White-Lewis

December 1, 2023

Damani White-Lewis shares insights into postdoctoral hiring inequities

Damani White-Lewis told Science last week that a recent study finding many researchers of color are at a disadvantage in the postdoctoral hiring process is both “very important” and “very needed.” He proposed addressing the issue by increasing network connections across universities to create “strong bonds” for minorities.

August 18, 2023

Damani White-Lewis studies why university faculties often lack diversity

His goal is to shift hiring and retention practices in higher ed through data, interventions, and conversations about racialized organizational dynamics.

December 13, 2022

In the Media

Among U.S. postdoc applicants, researchers of color often fare worst

Damani White-Lewis shares insights into postdoctoral hiring inequities.

Science | August 10, 2023

Studying the Academy from Within

A Q&A with Damani White-Lewis on his research investigating why university faculty still lack racial diversity and how to build pathways towards equity in higher education.

Penn GSE Magazine | June 1, 2023

Research–practice partnership supports institutional effectiveness

Damani White-Lewis is featured in a story about scholars using COACHE data to focus on the academic workforce.

COACHE Impact Report | March 1, 2023

Damani White-Lewis joins faculty at the University of Pennsylvania

An interdisciplinary scholar who studies racial inequality in academic careers and contexts using multiple methods and theories from organizational behavior and social psychology, White-Lewis will teach and conduct research in the school’s Policy, Organizations, Leadership, and Systems Division.

Ampersand | November 19, 2022

Black faculty and radical retention

Damani White-Lewis offers research-based recommendations on retaining Black faculty.

Footnotes: A Magazine of the American Sociological Association | October 29, 2022

Mitigating bias through rubrics

The work of Damani White-Lewis is referenced on how the concept of faculty fit can perpetuate biases in hiring if it’s not standardized.

Inside Higher Ed | July 12, 2022

Journal Editorial Boards

Journal of the Professoriate

Editorial Board

Research in Higher Education

Editorial Board