Local Community College Administrator Co-Authors Book on Queer and Trans Advocacy

A CRC administrator has co-authored a new book from Information Age Publishing, "Queer & Trans Advocacy in the Community College."

Emilie Mitchell, Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Cosumnes River College, co-authored the book with Lemuel W. Watson, Associate Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs, Provost Professor of School of Education and African American and African Diaspora Studies, Co-Director of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention and Senior Scientist at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University.  The other co-author was Joshua Moon Johnson, former American River College Dean, and currently Vice President of Student Services at the College of San Mateo.

"Queer & Trans Advocacy in the Community College" is a comprehensive, practitioner-focused book that combines relevant research and guidance on practices to aid colleges in establishing services and programs to build effective LGBTQ+ services on their college campuses.

LGBTQ+ advocacy and support continues to be a priority in US higher education, and recent research shows this as a critical population who continues to be marginalized and mistreated on college and university campuses. Over the last few decades there has been significant research describing how LGBTQ+ students experience higher education and highlighting that these students are not graduating or succeeding at the same rates as the general population. However, few if any research studies or articles address LGBTQ+ advocacy on community college campuses.

There are more than 1,000 community colleges in the US. Even with the extraordinary number of students that the community college system educates, approximately 15 institutions nationally have paid staff to provide LGBTQ+ services to students. That being said, community colleges are now putting a larger emphasis on understanding and supporting this community. For example, The California Community College system's 116 colleges now require all campuses to create a plan on how to improve success rates of LGBTQ+ students. The CCC is the largest higher education system in the country serving over 2 million students.

This is Mitchell's first book from the publisher.