Aurora Kamimura, PhD 

Assistant Provost for Inclusive Excellence
Lecturer, Education, Arts & Sciences
Washington University in St. Louis

Dr. Aurora Kamimura works closely with campus leaders to further diversify the professoriate and to create more inclusive learning environments in the classroom. Her area of expertise lies in courses regarding higher education, organizational behavior, and access and equity. She has over twenty years of experience as an educator on college/university campuses working to broaden access for minoritized populations at the local, state, and national levels.

Kamimura is alumnus of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan and alumnus of the AAHHE Graduate Student Fellowship Program (2016). Her research agenda focuses on broadening access and equity in the P-20/professoriate pathway. Her scholarship on strategies for diversifying STEM graduate education can be found in journal articles and book chapters. A few examples are:

  • ‘Cuida tu casa y deja la ajena’: Focusing on retention as a self-perpetuating engine for recruiting Latina faculty in STEM” in An Asset-Based Approach to Advancing Latina Students in STEM: Increasing Resilience, Participation, and Success.
  •  ‘The benefits of diversity for innovation in academic research’ in Positive Organizing in a Global Society: Understanding and Engaging Differences for Capacity Building and Inclusion.
  • ‘Undocumented student access to higher education: Focused efforts at the federal and institutional levels’ in Engaged Research and Practice: Higher Education and the Pursuit of the Public Good.
  • “Let’s Road Trip: Aligning Theoretical Frameworks, Research Questions, and Research Design,” in A Practical Guide to Teaching Methods in Education: Lesson Plans and Advice from Faculty, which is co-edited and collaborates with several authors from the AAHHE familia.

Kamimura earned a BA in Social Sciences from the University of California, Irvine; EdM in Administration, Planning and Social Policy at Harvard University; and a MA in Higher Education Management and Organizations, and a PhD in Higher Education and Organization Behavior at the University of Michigan. She served as 2018/2018 chair/co-chair of the AAHHE Graduate Student Fellows Program. She currently serves as the Treasurer-elect for the AAHHE Board of Directors.