An experienced higher education researcher, administrator, and project manager, Dr. Derrick Tillman-Kelly serves as the University Innovation Alliance (UIA) Fellow at The Ohio State University. He has a keen interest in critically engaging campus constituents to improve student success and the socialization of senior level administrators. He has experience in a variety of functional areas including financial aid, fraternity and sorority life and first-year programs, to name a few. Derrick earned his doctorate (PhD) in educational policy and leadership with a specialization in higher education and student affairs and a graduate interdisciplinary specialization in sexuality studies from Ohio State, his master’s degree in higher education and student affairs from Indiana University, and his bachelor’s degree in biology and cognitive science from Illinois Wesleyan University.

His research interests consider three primary aspects of higher education: (a) leadership and organizational socialization of administrators in higher education; (b) minority serving institutions; and (c) impact of identity intersections on academic and social experiences of college students with specific consideration of race, gender, sexuality, and spirituality as social identities.