Dr. Wilson Okello

Dr. Wilson Kwamogi Okello (he/him), assistant professor at the Pennsylvania State University, is an artist and interdisciplinary scholar who draws on Black critical theories to advance research on student/early adult development theory. He is also concerned with how Black critical theories might reconfigure understandings of racialized stress and trauma, qualitative inquiry, critical masculinities, and curriculum and pedagogy. 

He has published over 40 scholarly publications in venues such as the Journal of College Student Development, Race, Ethnicity and Education, and the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Dr. Okello is co-editor of “Trauma-informed practice in student affairs: Multidimensional considerations for care, healing, and wellbeing,” a New Directions for Student Services volume (Wiley Press), and author of a forthcoming text with SUNY Press that explores the potential of centering Blackness in student development theory. Among other early career awards, he received the 2022 Council on Ethnic Participation (CEP) Mildred Garcia Award for Exemplary Scholarship by the Association for the Study of Higher Education. He was named a 2022 Emerging Scholar by the American College Personnel Association.