Rate My Professor Angela Locks

Angela M. Locks, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), serving as Department Chair since August 2024, Director of the Educational Doctorate in Educational Leadership program, and Executive Director of the Center for Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness. She joined the CSULB faculty in 2008 as an Assistant Professor in the Student Development in Higher Education program, achieving tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2014 and to Full Professor in 2019. Her extensive leadership roles include Faculty Director of the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program from 2013 to 2020, Inaugural Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research Services from 2016 to 2020, and Executive Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Academic Affairs starting in 2020. Locks earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education in 2008, M.A. in Higher Education, and B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan. Earlier in her career, she held positions at the University of Michigan, including roles in the National Center for Institutional Diversity and the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program.

Locks' research focuses on college access and experiences for diverse students, emphasizing retention, institutional diversity praxis, and the relationships between student interactions with diverse peers and engagement in diversity programs. She has secured major grants, including a $442,000 award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 2018 as Principal Investigator for the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program and funding for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Center. Her key publications include co-editing Debunking the Grit Narrative in Higher Education: Drawing on the Strengths of African American, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Latinx, and Native American Students (Routledge) with Rocío Mendoza and Deborah F. Carter; Diversity and Inclusion: Supporting Students of Color in Higher Education, 2nd edition (2019), co-authored with Rachelle Winkle-Wagner; the first edition (2013) with the same co-author; and "Extending Notions of Campus Climate and Diversity to Students’ Transition to College" (Review of Higher Education, 2008) with Sylvia Hurtado, Nicholas Bowman, and Leticia Oseguera. Recognized with awards such as Outstanding Faculty Mentor for Student Engagement in Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity (2014) and Most Valuable Professor by the College of Education Alumni Association (2014), Locks has delivered presentations at major conferences including AERA, ASHE, and NASPA, influencing higher education practices in diversity and undergraduate research.