La Líder: Developing a Leadership Identity as a Hispanic Woman at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

Institutions of higher education are uniquely positioned to educate tomorrow’s leaders and initiate change in the number and ethnic diversity of women in leadership roles. The purpose of our study was to understand the essence of Hispanic college women’s leadership identity development with participants and researchers co-constructing meaning. We used individual and group interviews with 11 Hispanic women student leaders at a public, 4-year Hispanic-serving institution in the Southeast. The findings and recommendations suggest administrative and academic members of the academy need to consider ethnicity and gender as well as the biases that still exist in leadership paradigms for further research and programming.