Donna Y. Ford

Developing an Identity of Scholastic Achievement

Donna Ford is among the strongest advocates at Vanderbilt working to address systemic problems of racial inequity in education and the "achievement gap" dividing minority students from their higher-achieving white peers. In 2006, Ford and Gilman Whiting, senior lecturer in African American and Diaspora Studies and Human and Organizational Development, established the Vanderbilt University Achievement Gap Project.

Ford and Whiting hope to raise consciousness as well as offer solutions. "We want to bring more visibility to the issue," Ford says, "particularly on campus and in the surrounding areas. Large-scale change has to first be implemented locally."

This summer Ford and Whiting directed a two-week Summer Scholar Identity Institute on the Vanderbilt campus, enrolling 100 black teenage males from Nashville public schools. The institute sought to instill in these young men character traits that can enable them to develop academic self-confidence and success-oriented attitudes and behaviors.

Ford's academic work also includes minority students who are gifted and talented, especially those who underachieve. She has said that she wrote her first book with her own son, and other black males, in mind.

Donna Ford

• Professor of Education and Human Development
• Research Focus: Giftedness in minority youth, underachievement among diverse populations
• Constantly Surprised by: Peabody's faculty and students who are committed to making a difference in this community