Overcoming Whiteness: An Autoethnographic Account of a Black Female Administrator's Journey at a Community and Technical College.

Black and racially minority women are underrepresented in administrative positions of authority in higher education, especially at predominantly white institutions (PWIs). These women are forced to work in environments of articulated boundaries that do not permit their voices or perspectives to be heard and they are overwhelmingly disregarded, in comparison to their white counterparts, as competent leaders mainly because of their intersectionality with race and gender. Consequently, Black and racially minoritized women struggle to be included, accepted, and respected as higher education professionals. Additionally, the experiences of Black and racially minoritized women are the result of an environment that encourages discrimination, isolation and exclusion. As a result, Black and racially minoritized women experience feelings of insecurity and invisibility and often self-segregate in order to survive in the environment. While each racially minoritized women encounters differing backgrounds and beliefs, their shared experiences within the realm of higher education warrants further review. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the system and the effects systemic institutional racism has on a Black female administrator employed at a community and technical college. I utilized autoethnography as my research method, and the concepts of white racial framing and critical race theory, as the theoretical lenses to inform the reader of my experiences. I served as both the researcher and the participant for this study. Through my voice, using reflexive journaling, storytelling, and personal narratives, I inform the reader of my experiences as a Black female administrator employed in a system that continuously challenged my intersectionality and made every effort to silence my voice