Dr. Louise Michelle Vital is a senior lecturer in the Higher Education Administration program at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Her primary line of inquiry is related to the global dimensions of higher education. Her work centers on a country and regional focus on Haiti and the Caribbean, student experiences in higher education, community\/university partnerships, practitioner\u2013scholar preparation, and critical reflexive practice in academia.<\/p>\n
Dr. Vital has over 20 years of experience in a variety of educational contexts, including TRiO programs, youth development, migrant student services, and student affairs. Before coming to BU Wheelock, Dr. Vital was an associate professor at Lesley University, where she was the director of the international higher education master\u2019s program and cofounder\/director of the Lesley University Institute for English Language Programs beyond Borders.<\/p>\n
Along with the institute codirector, Dr. Vital partnered with l’Institut des sciences, des technologies et des \u00e9tudes avanc\u00e9es d’Ha\u00efti (ISTEAH) to offer an English course for their graduate students; collaborated with the Authentic Caribbean Foundation and local embassies and ministries of education in the Bahamas, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines to offer week-long workshops on \u201cteaching for neurodiversity\u201d for about 600 K\u201312 educators; and created an English course for Haitian immigrant parents in partnership with Brockton Public Schools.<\/p>\n
As a \u201cfirst-gen\/first-gen\u201d (American, college student) Dr. Vital\u2019s teaching, research, scholarship, and service are driven by key suppositions and questions, including how inequalities in power and privilege exist in society. She asks: what are the consequences of these realities, and what is their impact on educational experiences?<\/p>\n