Hollins University has named Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Anthropology LeeRay Costa as executive director of leadership studies and the Batten Leadership Institute.
As executive director, Costa is responsible for program development, assessment, cross-disciplinary collaboration, recruitment, outreach, and leadership teaching and mentoring.
“Dr. Costa’s deep commitment to student-centered learning, faculty development, and her own leadership development and expertise place her in an excellent position to shape and lead an expansive and inclusive vision of the Batten Leadership Institute at Hollins University,” said Nora Kizer Bell Provost Laura McLary. “Her leadership will provide support and learning for women of all ages and intersectional identities, recognizing the power of raising up leaders from the margins.”
McLary added that Costa “will lead initiatives to reinvigorate and redefine leadership around current needs and research, developing curricula that are appropriate for the life stages and needs of a diversity of learners.”
In her 23 years at Hollins, Costa has served in multiple leadership roles. In addition to chairing the department of gender and women’s studies for 15 years, she has most recently served as the university’s director of faculty development. Her teaching and scholarship have been recognized with Hollins’ Excellence in Teaching Award (2022), the Senior Class Faculty Award (2012), the Herta Freitag Legacy Award (2010), and the John P. Wheeler Endowed Professorship (2014-2017).
Beyond Hollins, Costa served for six years as the cofounder, executive director, and board chair of Girls Rock Roanoke, a nonprofit organization that seeks to empower girls as well as femme identified and non-binary youth through music, creative expression, and collaboration. She has also held leadership positions in the National Women’s Studies Association and the Southeastern Women’s Studies Association, and is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, a national leadership honor society.
“Dr. Costa has deep and varied experience in leadership training,” McLary noted, “including the HERS Institute, the premier leadership program for women in higher education. She has also completed Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead program, earned a certificate in professional leadership from the Batten Leadership Institute, and is a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner.”
Costa completed her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of California, San Diego; her Master of Arts at New York University; and her Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her new book, Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education: Narratives Toward Wholeness, coedited with Michelle C. Chatman and David Robinson-Morris, will be available from Routledge in early November. The book explores how higher education professionals utilize contemplative practices, personally and professionally, to create more just, inclusive, life-affirming, and liberatory educational spaces.
The Batten Leadership Institute at Hollins University offers both an undergraduate track and leadership programs for women and men as well as organizational team consultation. Undergraduate classes teach students how to understand and navigate feedback, conflict, and negotiation. For professionals at all levels, the Institute offers focused leadership training and development opportunities.
