Nina Owolabi is a doctoral student and mama-scholar in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership with a concentration in higher education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research centers on the Black student experience at community colleges. Threads of that work draw upon a critical and social justice lens to explore the lived experiences of parenting students, those with disabilities, and other historically excluded groups, interrogating the community college as a place of access and enclosure.
Her professional background includes 15 years of education justice work focused on student, program, and curriculum development. Before beginning her program, Nina served as a community college advisor and faculty member.