Biography
Dr. Dionne Rosser-Mims is a full professor and Vice Chancellor for the Troy University Phenix City Campus. She has served in a range of administrative positions during her TROY tenure. Dr. Rosser-Mims completed Harvard's Women in Educational Leadership Institute and is the recipient of the 2023 East Alabama Chamber of Commerce Individual Leader of the Year Award, the 2021 Women in Leadership Member Community Outstanding Senior Scholar award, the 2013 Wallace D. Malone, Jr. Distinguished Faculty Award, and a Chancellor’s Fellow. Dr. Rosser-Mims has nearly 20 years of adult education experience including work in collegiate teaching, as well as training and development. Over the past ten years, she has engaged in a range of international-related work including having led study abroad experiences and serving as a workshop presenter for the Higher Education Resource Services, East Africa Leadership Academy held at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. In addition to authoring four books with the most recent 2020 co-edited publication titled Pathways into the Political Arena: The Perspectives of Global Women Leaders, Rosser-Mims has published over 15 articles and book chapters combined and delivered conference presentations and speaking engagements at the regional, national, and international levels. Dr. Rosser-Mims is the co-founder and former co-editor in chief of Dialogues in Social Justice: An Adult Education Journal, a peer-reviewed open-access journal.
Prior to Troy University, Rosser-Mims held a faculty position at the University of Georgia’s Fanning Institute for Leadership. She worked on projects targeting communities suffering from economic, educational, and social disparities by providing program development, leadership training, and facilitation services. She continues to work with a range of audiences to provide facilitation services in the areas of team-building, group dynamics, leadership assessments, conflict management, communication, board development, and strategic planning.
Dr. Rosser-Mims holds a Ph.D. in adult education and a master’s in public administration from the University of Georgia. She maintains membership and serves in leadership positions in several professional and community organizations. Selected examples include SACSCOC board member, Piedmont University trustee and chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, Alabama School Readiness Alliance board of directors, chair of the Community Schools Strategy of the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley, and a member the Phenix City, Alabama Rotary.
Selected Publications & Presentations
- Thompson, R. J, Egan, C., & Rosser-Mims. D. (Eds.) (In press). Women Leaders Transforming the World Book Series. Emerald Publishing.
- Tolstikov-Mast, Y., Walker, J. L., Lemoine, P., & Rosser-Mims, D. (2022). Virtual research internships abroad. In Tolstikov-Mast, Y., Walker, J., & Bieri, F. (Eds.) International Leadership Research, 409-426. Francis & Taylor.
- Rosser-Mims, D., McNellis, J., Johnson-Bailey, J., & Eagan, C. (Eds). (2020). Pathways into the Political Arena: The Perspectives of Global Women Leaders. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc.
- Rosser-Mims, D. (2020). From being underestimated to becoming a dean. In L. Nabb, F. Tan, & D. R. Privott (Eds.), North American Adult Educators: Phyllis M. Cunningham Archive of Quintessential Autobiographies for the Twenty-First Century, 2nd Edition. Surprise, AZ: Discovery Association Publishing House.
- Rosser-Mims, D., & Rodriquez, E. Connecting an international experience to the future. 32nd Annual Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. Atlanta GA. (October 2018).
- Rosser-Mims, D. (2018). A legacy of leadership: Black female adult educators. Advancing Women in Leadership Journal, 38, 21-26.
- Caldeirinha, C., Rosser-Mims, D., Watson, G. F., von Nkosi, M., & Koch-Mehrin, S. Influencing Decisions in Turbulent Times: The Strategic Role of Civil Society in Protecting Democracy (Panelist). 19th Annual Global Conference of the International Leadership Association. Brussels, Belgium. (October 2017).
- Rosser-Mims, D., & Maloney, J. (2017). Historical and contemporary relevance of the interconnectivity of community, community-based education, and transformative education. International Journal of Adult Vocational Education and Technology, 8(1), 47 - 56.
- Drayton, B., Rosser-Mims, D., Schwartz, J., & Guy, T. (Eds). (2016). Swimming upstream 2: Agency and urgency in the education of black men: New directions for adult and continuing education, Number 150. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Research Interests
Current research interests are:
- Leadership development
- Women and leadership
- Leadership and intersectionality theory
- Adult learning and development
- International and comparative adult and continuing education