Dr. Soribel Genao serves as a member with Educational Leadership at CUNY, Queens college and is a bilingual researcher and consultant with community and place-based research and evaluation experience using both qualitative and qualitative methods. Throughout her career, she has consulted on initiatives focused on diversity and inclusion with an equity lens within private, higher education, private and non-profit sectors globally.  She holds a doctorate in Public Administration from Rutgers University.  

Over the course of her academic and professional career, lived experience and quest for access and belonging serving as a muse, Dr. Genao constantly informs research and scholarship within the discipline of organizational development and educational leadership. During her doctoral work and throughout early years in academia, she characterized herself as a scholar focused on issues of diversity and collaboration in urban school leadership. And, while she is still examining these issues, her focus has evolved and is now grounded in social justice as an umbrella for promoting solidarity and equitable practices in schools, communities, and society.  

This evolution to a social justice framework seemed like a natural transition for her, yet it reignited her research passion and scholarly endeavors. In her co-edited book entitled (Re)Building bi/multilingual leaders for socially just communities (2020), the authors highlight the benefits of preparing future school leaders to understand and recognize language and multicultural diversity issues. They also address the impact of multiculturalism and globalization on educators, children, families, schools, and communities. In the article, “All we need in one mic: A call for anti-racist solidarity to deconstruct anti-Black racism in educational leadership” (2021), her co-author and her contend that principal preparation programs have not but must explicitly prioritize anti-racist school leadership to promote anti-racist dispositions in schools, leaders, teachers, and students.  

Finally, her professional service experiences and most fulfilling roles are those of a mentor and member in the University Council of Educational Administrators (UCEA) and as the chairperson of Division A (Administration, Organization, and Leadership) of the American Education Research Association (AERA). Furthermore, she has been a NYSED and Wallace Foundation advisor supporting and preparing anti-racist school leaders. At Queens College, she serves as the chairperson of the Black and Latinx Faculty and Staff Association (BLFSA) as a social justice advocate and was one of the inaugural Diversity Fellow in the Provost’s Office.  

Check out the interview HERE.

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