Jarrel Johnson, a doctorate student, investigates intersecting identities, higher education’s role in inclusion. He attended Shaw University in North Carolina for his bachelor’s degree in English and earned his master’s in higher education leadership at Mercer University in Atlanta. He then entered the workforce as a financial aid adviser at Emory University in Atlanta, and then later became assistant dean of Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences in New York. All these before coming to Iowa.

Jarrel Johnson didn’t expect that his interest in exploring Black identities would bring him to study in Ames, Iowa, but the opportunities and community he’s found at Iowa State University have helped him transform his passions into tangible research findings.

Jarrel has organized his career into “phases of influence.” Currently, in the research and teaching phase, he plans to push higher education institutions forward in the next phase by serving as a college or university president. Connect with Jarrel Johnson on LinkedIn. 

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