Graves, Kelisha

Kelisha B. Graves
Office: 
Phone: 910-613-0627 
Email: kelisha.graves@gmail.com

 

C-Level Executive and Higher Education educator with experience in teaching and educational administration. Interdisciplinary and gElobal scholar with publications in the humanities and social sciences. Research focusing on teaching and learning, culturally responsive pedagogy, educational leadership, African American intellectual history, global education policy and international development.

EDUCATION

Ed.D., Doctor of Education, 2021

Educational Leadership in Higher Education, Fayetteville State University

Dissertation: “The Next Hundred Years of HBCUs: An Exploratory Study of HBCU Sustainability and Internationalization with Africa

and the African Diaspora”

M.A., Master of Arts, 2013

Theology, Liberty University

B.S., Bachelor of Science, 2012

Psychology, Fayetteville State University

Certificates

African Policy, Howard University, 2021

Effective Teacher Training, Fayetteville Technical Community College, 2016

RESEARCH INTERESTS, TEACHING AND PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES

Social Sciences

Linkedin.com/in/kelisha-graves

O: 910-613-0627 | C: 910-849-9314

North Carolina, United States

  • Educational leadership in higher education
  • History and philosophy of education
  • Culturally responsive teaching and learning
  • Educational planning and program development
  • Internationalization, US Africa relations, education policy, and international development

Humanities

  • African American intellectual history
  • Africana philosophy / socio-cultural epistemologies
  • Religious & theological studies
    • Comparative religious & philosophical thought
    • black religious thought and religious movements

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change – Atlanta, GA 2021-present

Chief Research, Education, and Programs Officer (July 2021 - present)

Oversees the strategic development, operational success, and global impact of The King Center’s Research, Education and Program Unit. Oversees corporate and government partnerships, program delivery, quality control and evaluation. Oversees related projects in specific regions, countries, and areas of interest to The King Center. Manages and directs the unit toward its primary goals and objectives. Leads a team of leaders to consider major decisions including joint ventures and large-scale expansion. Represents the organization externally with international and national partners as well as with governments and donors. Oversees all education and research initiatives for the general public, colleges and universities, and K-12.

Selected Accomplishments

  • Identified new funding opportunities that increased grant awards and tripled revenue to Research, Education, and Programs unit
  • Oversaw the development, design, and launch of the world’s first eLearning platform in Kingian Nonviolence

(Nonviolence365® Online)

  • Brokered multi-year partnership with Goldman Sachs $10 Billion One Million Black Women Initiative
  • Re-designed learning content that reached 700,000 students in 22 countries in Q1 of 2022
  • Established partnership with US Dept of State and the International Research Exchanges Board
  • Oversaw and launched the digitization project for the largest repository of primary source documentary material related to Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, and the civil rights movement in the world.

Fayetteville State University – Fayetteville, NC 2017-2021

University Teaching (2017-2021)

Interdisciplinary teaching and lecturing experience at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Undergraduate Level Courses

  • UNIV 101: Seminar for Social Sciences
  • UNIV 102: Seminar for Social Sciences
  • ETCE 200: Ethics and Civic Engagement

Graduate Level Courses (Internship)

  • EDLE 721: Research, Design, and Evaluation Methodology
  • EDLE 705: Planning and Financing of Educational Organizations (Post-Doc Internship)

Courses Guest Lectured

  • PHIL 212: African American Philosophy
  • GLBL 200.GU1: Global Peace Role Models: King, Gandhi, Mandela
  • HIST 210: African American History

Retention Coordinator (2019-2021)

Academic Affairs – University College

  • Oversaw Freshman seminar program and college unit adjunct instructors and advisors
  • Re-designed and delivered culturally-responsive curriculum tailored for First-Year students.
  • Developed strategies to increase retention resulting in a 6% increase in retention among first-year students from Fall 2019- Spring 2020
  • Worked closely with Dean on unit operations
  • Facilitated, expanded and strengthened existing and new programs focused on developing student leadership.
  • Conducted performance review evaluation of unit faculty

Program Director, Thurgood Marshall College Fund Fleischer FSU HBCU Scholars Program (2019-2021)

Academic Affairs – Broadwell College of Business and Economics

  • Provided leadership in interfacing with corporate partners in national and local corporate partners; established partnership with corporate sector (Minor League Baseball Team) to provide an enhanced business experience for students.
  • Organized inaugural program structure and developed curriculum focusing on business and entrepreneurship targeting underrepresented youth in North Carolina.
  • Established collaborations with community leaders and local government officials to provide experiential learning opportunities for students.
  • Oversight of budget and expenditures.

Program Coordinator, Honors & Undergraduate Research Programs (2018-2019)

Academic Affairs – University College

  • Provided administrative leadership in conjunction with Honors Director on the development of honors curriculum and co-curricular initiatives.
  • Coordinated co-curricular experiences and internship opportunities focusing on leadership development, service-learning, and experiential learning.
  • Developed marketing agenda and provided targeted academic programming to: expand visibility of the honors program, increase awareness of honors and undergraduate research programming, enhance student engagement and interest

Co-Principal Investigator, Program Manager, MSI CBO HIV Prevention Program (2017-2018)

Academic Affairs – College of Arts and Sciences – Department of Government & History

  • Managed and oversaw $1 million budget.
  • Oversaw daily operations of program and its implementation on a university campus.
  • Developed marketing agenda and provided targeted academic programming to: (1) expand visibility of the program, (2) enhance awareness of sexual health prevention strategies among high-risk young adults, (3) decrease stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.
  • Positioned program to capitalize on outreach opportunities by building strategic partnerships with community-based organizations to provide HIV testing for high-risk young adult minority populations.
  • Provided administrative leadership in reports preparations for federal funder and program evaluation.

PUBLICATIONS

Books

  • The Next Hundred Years: The African Century (in progress)
  • Nannie Helen Burroughs: A Documentary Portrait of an Early Civil Rights Pioneer, 1900-1959

Editor | Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 2019

*Nominated for the BCALA Literary Award 2019 (Category: Non-fiction)

*Nominated for Pauli Murray Book Prize, African American Intellectual History Society

Textbooks

  • The Bronco’s Guide to the First Year of College: UNIV 101, UNIV 102, UNIV 110

Co-Editor | Publisher: Tapestry, Inc., 2020

Book Chapters

  • “Pushing Daisy: the Activism, Leadership and (Un)Respectable Politics of Daisy Bates.” In Liberating Minds Liberating Society, Black Women in the Development of American Culture and Society, p. 41-59

Chapter Author | Publisher: Association of Black Women Historians, 2014

Journal Articles

  • “Blackness as a Pedagogical Tool Against the Dishonesty of a Post-Racial Teleology.” Author | Published In: Journal of Pan African Studies, 2018
  • “The Impact of Motivation on Academic Success of Predominantly Black College Students in North Carolina Public University System,” p. 69-81

Co-Author | Published In: International Journal of Education Studies, 2017

Book Endorsements

  • William Still: The Underground Railroad and the Angel at Philadelphia by William C. Kashatus, 2021

PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS AND MEDIA APPEARANCES

Presentations & Papers (United States)

  • Teaching Philosophy in a Changing World, Department of Philosophy, Dartmouth College

November 12, 2021 | Guest Speaker Panelist

  • Lecture on Nannie Helen Burroughs, Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change, University of Memphis

March 9, 2021 | Guest Speaker

  • Lecture on Nannie Helen Burroughs, Western Carolina University

February 18, 2021 | Guest Speaker

  • “1619: Understanding our 400-Year Journey from 1619 to Present,” Fayetteville State University Faculty

February 25, 2020 | Panelist

  • “100 Years Later, Carter G Woodson’s Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 and Miseducation of the Negro.”

College of Education Doctoral Student Association

February 18, 2020 | Speaker

  • “Bringing the Words of Nannie Helen Burroughs to Light.”

Methodist University, Fayetteville, NC

January 20, 2020 | Speaker

  • “Implementation of the Fleischer Scholars Program on an HBCU Campus.” Texas A&M University, Houston, TX

March 23-25, 2020 | Presenter

  • “Students with King: Remembering Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King.” Martin Luther King Jr. Center for

Nonviolent Social Change, Atlanta, GA

January 14, 2020 | Panelist

  • “For the Soul of Humanity: The Legacy and Social Change Activism of Coretta Scott King.” We Shall Overcome: the

Legacy of the Civil Rights Era, CCPL Headquarters, Fayetteville, NC

May 19, 2018 | Presenter

  • “Women in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements.”

African American Lecture Series, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC

April 26, 2018 | Presenter

  • “Advancing an Autonomous Supportive Teaching Style Among Predominantly Black Students in Historically Black

Higher Education Institutions.” Faculty Research Panel Discussion, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC January 31, 2018 | Presenter

  • “An American Horror Story: Apocrypha Noir as the Apocalypse to the American Fairy Tale; or Black Film as a Pedagogical Imperative.” Roots at 40: Reflections and Remembrances, Goodwin College, East Hartford, CT October 6, 2017 | Presenter
  • “Designing and Implementing a Comprehensive Integrated Prevention Program for At-Risk Minority Young Adults.” International Conference on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, HIV/AIDs & Parasitic Infections, San Antonio, TX September 21-22, 2017 | Presenter
  • “God Will Give Us Credit For Trying: Revolutionary Christianity and the Urgency of Nationist Politics in the Thought of Nannie Helen Burroughs.” African American Intellectual History Society Conference, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

March 24-25, 2017 | Presenter

  • “Understanding Theology Through the Critical Artifice of Race; Or, Towards a Theory of Critical Race Theology.”

Philosophy of Race, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

July 29, 2016 | Presenter

  • “Through a Lens Darkly: Pop Culture Hieroglyphs as Organizing Historiographical Epistemology.” National Council of

Black Studies, Charlotte, NC

March 16-19, 2016 | Presenter

  • “B(l)ack at Crisis: The Protracted Black Struggle in America Under the Dishonesty of a Post-Racial Teleology.”

Philosophy Born of Struggle Conference. University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

November 6-7, 2015 | Presenter

  • “Divergent Thoughts: The Philosophies of DuBois v. Washington.” University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa

February 3, 2015 | Speaker

  • “Black Money, White Ire: Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Riot.” University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa

February 4, 2015 | Speaker

  • “The Life, Love, and Leadership of Coretta Scott King. Remembering Coretta Scott King: A Panel Discussion.”

Martin Luther King Jr Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Atlanta, GA

April 28, 2014 | Panelist

Invited Presentations and Speaking (International)

  • American Corners. U.S. Embassy, Alexandria, Egypt

February 21, 2022 | Guest Speaker

  • Black Excellence Day. Ontario, Canada

January 14, 2022 | Keynote Speaker

  • “Martin Luther King’s Visionary Leadership II.” Geneva Switzerland.

December 5, 2021 | Guest Speaker

  • Martin Luther King’s Visionary Leadership.” Geneva Switzerland.

June 30, 2021 | Guest Speaker

  • “For the Soul of Humanity: Coretta Scott King and the Impetus of Nonviolence as a Prolegomenon for Global

Community.” Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

March 7, 2017 | Guest Lecturer

Invited Presentations and Speaking (United States)

  • Black History for the Future, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville NC

February 23, 2022 | Keynote Speaker

  • Garnett-Nasbitt Lecture Series: Nannie Helen Burroughs Scholarship Luncheon, American Baptist College, Nashville, TN

March 18, 2020 | Keynote Speaker

  • Nannie Helen Burroughs: Book Talk. Sankofa Bookstore, Washington, DC

September 7, 2019 | Speaker

  • The Life and Legacy of Coretta Scott King: 50th Anniversary Founding of the King Center. Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Atlanta, GA

June 26, 2018 | Speaker

  • Comprehensive Integrated HIV Prevention Program Among Predominantly Black College Students. Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, Fayetteville NC

November 20, 2017 | Speaker

  • Tribute to Coretta Scott King at the 47th Annual MLK Commemorative Service. Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Atlanta, GA.

January 19, 2015 | Speaker

Media

Television

  • The Black College Quiz Show, Season 6, Episode 3 Episode 3: Fayetteville State University vs Claflin University September 12, 2020
  • The Black College Quiz Show, Season 6, Episode 2 Fayetteville State University vs Alabama A&M University June 27, 2020
  • The Black College Quiz Show, Season 6, Episode 1

Fayetteville State University vs Tuskegee University May 16, 2020

National Media

  • Washington Post
  • Atlanta Journal Constitution
  • Ford Motor Company Fund

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE, BOARDS, AND COMMITTEES

Boards

  • Covenant Advisory Board, 2021-2022 | Consulate Generate of Israel to the Southeast (2021-present)
  • Fayetteville Observer Community Advisory Board (2019-2020)
  • Cape Fear Committee on African American Heritage, Museum of the Cape Fear (2019-2020)

Refereed Journals & Editorial Boards

  • British Journal of the History of Philosophy, Reviewer (2020)
  • The Henry McNeal Turner Project, University of Memphis, Advisory Board Member (2017-present)

University Level Service Appointments

Accreditation

  • SACSCOC Reaffirmation Committee - Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) Committee (2019-2021)
  • SACSCOC Reaffirmation Committee - Standard 9.3: General Education Committee (2019-2021)

University Committees

  • COVID-19 Emergency Response Taskforce (2020)
  • Enrollment Management Committee (2020-2021)
  • Academic Appeals (2020-2021)
  • University Admissions Exceptions Committee (2019-2020)
  • Graduate School Council (2019-2020)
  • University Honors Program Advisory Council, Chair, Curriculum Design and Programming (2018-2021)

Department Level Appointments

  • Undergraduate and Graduate Research Symposium Committee (2019-2021)
  • Honors Scholars Association, Advisor (2019-2021)
  • Black History Scholars Association, Advisor (2017-2021)

Achievements: Secured $25,000 endowment for the FSU Black History Scholars Association. Endowment fund title: The LaFayette Fund for the Study of the Age of Revolutions, Emancipation, and Black History. Established Africana Lending Library collectio n housed at the Charles W. Chesnutt Library. Won award for Outstanding Student Organization of the Year, 2017-2018.

Academic Associations

  • African American Intellectual History Society
  • Association for the Study of African Life and History
  • Association of African Americans in Higher Education
  • Association of Black Women Historians
  • HBCU Collaboration for Excellence in Quality Assessment
  • National Council of Black Studies
  • National Council of Negro Women
  • UNC Association of Student Governments, Graduate/Professional Student Leadership, Member (2021)
  • Doctoral Association of Professional Students, President (2019-2020)