Dr. Amber Manning-Ouellette joined Oklahoma State University as an Assistant Professor in Higher Education and Students Affairs in 2018.  She holds the Anderson, Farris, and Halligan Endowed Professorship of College Student Development. She also serves as the master’s program coordinator, responsible for recruitment, selection, advising, and curriculum development for both the Master’s in College Student Development programs. Her research folds into three broad lines of inquiry including:

1. socially just leadership education,
2. International and domestic college student learning and cognitive development,
3. first-year student development and transition

Dr. Manning-Ouellette examines these research areas through various contexts including international education, STEM education, and gender perspectives. More specifically her research has included women’s leadership, study abroad and sense-making, student learning outcomes in college, student learning and cognitive development, first-year student transition and retention assessment.  Further, Dr. Manning-Ouellette focuses on socially just leadership education by examining white fragility in the classroom, liberatory pedagogy, and racial battle fatigue of student leaders of color at PWIs. She has presented her research at numerous international and national conferences such as the International Leadership Association, NASPA, ACPA, and the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

Dr. Manning-Ouellette is a scholar practitioner and has authored several articles and book chapters on a number of topics across higher education and student affairs. Selected juried articles include research on exploring civic attitudes and skills of first year students in the Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education, how service-learning influences the persistence of women in STEM fields published in the Journal of the First Year Experience and Students in Transition, and exploring intellectual disability as diversity in higher education in the Journal of College and Character. Selected juried book chapters include white fragility in leadership education in Shifting the Mindset: Socially Just Leadership Education (forthcoming 2021) and the role of liberatory pedagogy in socially just leadership education in Changing the Narrative: Socially Just Leadership Education. Most recently, Dr. Manning-Ouellette will serve as co-editor of a forthcoming text, Emerging International Issues in Student Affairs Research and Practice as part of the books series International Perspectives on Educational Policy, Research and Practice.

Dr. Amber Manning-Ouellette previously worked at Iowa State University leadership studies as a faculty member. She taught several courses in the leadership studies department including US diversity leadership, service-learning, and capstone research. She also directed the Global Leadership study abroad program in Stockholm, Sweden.

Previously, Dr. Manning-Ouellette worked in student affairs administration for over 9 years while completing her graduate work.  She served as the director of enrollment management for the Southern Illinois University Carbondale College of Business, focusing on the recruitment and retention strategies of undergraduate students.  She also coordinated over 90 sections of first-year seminar courses, and served in various teaching positions. She co-coordinated the first annual women’s leadership conference at SIU Carbondale, which focused on increasing women in STEM, business, and agriculture fields. In addition, she created a first-year women’s leadership course and living learning community in 2011.  She holds a bachelor’s in psychology, a master’s in counselor education, and a doctorate of philosophy in educational administration and higher education, all from SIU Carbondale.

Dr. AMO’s vita

Fun facts:

Proud FEMINIST, Advocate and ally, Counselor, mom (humans + dogs), life-partner of Nick, Green Bay Packer fanatic, good energy seeking, anti-racist educator, world traveler, yogi, and beach bum.

Write on!

-Dr. AMO