James McShay, Ph.D.

Dr. James McShay is an Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has administrative oversight of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union, University Career Center, the Departments of Fraternity & Sorority Life and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Student Affairs. He also leads Student Success and global First Generation Student initiatives for the Division. Prior to Dr. McShay stepping into this role, he was the Vice Chancellor for Equity & Inclusion at the University of Washington Tacoma where he led strategic initiatives, programs, and research efforts that foster a culture of equity, inclusion, and success for students, faculty and staff at the University.

Dr. McShay served as an Associate Director for the Stamp Student Union at the University of Maryland where he directed the Multicultural Involvement & Community Advocacy Office and supervised Leadership & Community Service Learning and Stamp Human Resources. During his tenure at Maryland, he was appointed to serve as the Chair of the President’s Commission for Ethnic Minority Issues and served as the founding Co-chair for the Student Affairs Diversity Initiative. He was the Director of Undergraduate Education for the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Iowa State University and served as the faculty director for a campus-wide program called Dialogues on Diversity.

Dr. McShay has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in multicultural education, ethnicity and learning, antiracist education and multicultural practice in student affairs. Some of his research interests include uses of critical pedagogy in K-16 education, culturally sustaining pedagogies in Student Affairs, and digital learning technologies and critical multicultural education. He has presented at numerous national professional conference associations including NASPA, NCORE, AERA, NACA, and NAME. His published works can be found in the Journal of Multicultural Perspectives; Multicultural Education and Technology Journal; New Directions for Student Services; Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice; and Critical Multiculturalism: From Theory to Praxis. Dr. McShay has also served as a UW Tacoma campus liaison to the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities, Association of Public & Land Grant Universities, has held leadership roles within the National Association of Multicultural Education, and Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society. Most recently, Dr. McShay was appointed to serve on the Restorative Justice Commission by the City of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland.

Dr. McShay’s administrative leadership roles, teaching, and research have focused on ways to increase the persistence, retention, and success of student populations that have been historically and systemically excluded from higher education. In addition, his work examines educational practices and interventions that foster college students’ understandings about intersecting identities, power and privilege and how these constructs are shaped by ideologies, social institutions and historical formations within the context of K-16 schools and society.