Dr. Ezella McPherson earned a Master of Education and Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. As an African American woman, she is familiar with the STEM culture through first-hand experiences, observations of friends, and former students in STEM majors and pre-medicine. She has also published manuscripts on African American women's giftedness in STEM (Oh you are smart: Young, gifted African American women in STEM majors), spiritual capital (Having our say in higher education: African American women's stories of 'doing science' through using spiritual capital), resilience (African American women's resilience in hard science majors), informal learning (Informal learning in SME fields for African American undergraduate females), and commitment to STEM majors (To commit or leave from STEM majors at a PWI: An exploration of African American women's experiences). She recently published the number 1 best-selling book titled, Real Outreach: A Practical Guide to Retaining and Graduating College Students. Her co-authored manuscripts include the mentoring of African American women in STEM at Historically Black College and Universities (Mentoring our own: African American women in engineering with co-author Dr. Virginia Tickles) and examining the experiences of minority women in STEM (Minority women in STEM: A valuable resource in the global economy with co-author Dr. Diane Fuselier-Thompson). She has presented on college student persistence, retention, and graduation of African American women, minority students, and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students at conferences, such as the American Educational Research Association, American Educational Studies Association, Association for the Study of Higher Education, STEM Education Conference University of British Columbia, International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, Oakland University Student Success Conference, American Sociological Association, and the Equity within the Classroom Conference.
