Dr. Shana Stoddard, associate professor of chemistry, has been named a 2025-2026 Leadership and Mentoring Institute (LMI) Mellon Fellow. The highly selective, year-long program is sponsored by the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education (AABHE) and the Mellon Foundation.
The inaugural Leadership and Mentoring Institute was held in 2003, and today it provides mid-level administrators and tenure-line faculty with the tools and resources to move into senior-level administrative positions. Participants engage with educational leaders in a series of professional development trainings that are designed to prepare leaders for the next phase of academic leadership.
The 2025 Fellows program consists of a week-long Leadership and Mentoring Institute, leadership and research institute seminars, the AABHE annual conference, quarterly leadership webinars, one-on-one career coaching, and a team-based project with LMI Mellon Fellow cohort members.
“I am humbled and excited to have this opportunity to learn from experienced leaders in higher education as I continue my professional journey toward senior-level administration positions,” said Stoddard. “I believe that the professional development around topics including Changing Higher Education Landscape; Linking Program Review, Strategic Planning and Accreditation; the Administrative Portfolio; Presidential Perspectives, and more will continue to empower me to be an agent of change in higher education.”
One critical goal for the LMI Mellon Fellows is for them to be fully equipped for today’s dynamic challenges, and the program cultivates the personal and professional growth needed to lead effectively, increases leadership advancement across diverse disciplines, and builds connections with professionals nationwide.
“Driven by my lived experience as an African American woman with a disability, equipped with an M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis on special education, and my work in educational advocacy, I am committed to dismantling barriers in higher education through a career in leadership. My passion lies in creating diverse and inclusive academic environments where all students, faculty, and staff can thrive,” said Stoddard.
Since joining Rhodes in 2015, Stoddard has earned early tenure; won six awards from national organizations for her teaching, mentoring, and scholarship; and has been inducted into the Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society.
Stoddard has maintained an active research program, in which she has mentored and published articles with undergraduate and graduate students as well as high school students. Her research focuses on understanding the structure of proteins and how they bind to their targets and using that information to improve patient outcomes with autoimmune disorders, cancers, neurological disorders, and coronaviruses.
Through her research program, Stoddard has predicted the structure of kidney proteins, leading to corrections in protein structure in international databases; designed drugs for diseases of cancer and coronaviruses; and developed an imaging protocol to detect osteosarcoma in pediatric patients.