Evangela Q. Oates, Ph.D. Associate University Librarian for Student Success

Email
eoates@umn.edu
Phone
612-624-5802
ORCID iD
ORCID logo 0000-0002-2096-9754
Full position title(s)
Associate University Librarian for Student Success
Libraries department
Libraries Administration

Background

Evangela Q. Oates, Ph.D., is the Associate University Librarian for Student Success at the University Libraries, University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Dr. Oates is charged with the providing strategic direction for the departments in the Student Success Service Area, a division comprised of: Access and Information Services, Affordable Learning and Open Education, Engagement, Outreach, and Community Partnerships, and Student Experience, Learning, and Accessibility. With her background as a practitioner and administrator in libraries, and scholar in higher education, Dr. Oates looks to her leverage her experiences to advocate for relational pedagogies, open educational practices, and asset-based ways of knowing to create opportunities for deep learning and engagement for students.

Her research centers Black faculty, administrators, and students in academic libraries, community colleges, and four-year universities. Her dissertation on Black librarians at public, two-year colleges won the 2021 Richard Romano Dissertation of the Year Award from the Council of the Study of Community Colleges. Using narrative inquiry, critical race methodology, and autoethnography, her scholarship is published in the Community College Review, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, Journal of International Students, along with numerous book chapters on topics of mentorship, racial battle fatigue, and communities of practice.

Dr. Oates received her B.A. in Music from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Spartan Spirit), and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Higher Education from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (#GBR). She is also a proud alumna of the School of Library and Information Sciences at North Carolina Central University, the only (and last) Historically Black College and University (HBCU) with a library science program (Go, Eagles).