Dr. Aeriel Ashlee

Dr. Aeriel AshleeDr. Aeriel A. Ashlee (she/her) is an award-winning author, healing-centered facilitator, and Associate Professor of College Counseling and Student Development at St. Cloud State University (SCSU), where she also served as the inaugural Belonging Mindset Faculty Fellow in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

Dr. Ashlee brings nearly two decades of experience leading diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives in higher education. Before entering the faculty ranks, she worked in a variety of student affairs functional areas, including service-learning, multicultural affairs, international education, and academic support services. Her current scholarship explores pedagogies of belonging and the intersections of contemplative and liberatory practices in the academy.

A proud Asian American woman of color and fierce mamascholar, Dr. Ashlee approaches her work as deeply personal—prioritizing healing as essential to imagining and co-creating more liberatory futures in higher education and beyond. She earned her B.A. in Strategic Communication from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, M.Ed. in Counseling and College Student Personnel from the University of Maryland, College Park, and Ph.D. in Student Affairs and Higher Education from Miami University in Ohio. Dr. Ashlee lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her husband, Kyle, and their daughters, Azaelea and Zinnea.

Courses Taught

  • CCSD 610: Introduction to Student Affairs and Student Development
  • CCSD 615: Identity and Dialogue in Student Development
  • CCSD 625: Social Justice and Student Development
  • CCSD 630: Future Directions of Student Development Theory
  • CCSD 644: Internship in Student Affairs
  • CCSD 673: Issues in Student Development
  • CCSD 681: Practice in Small Group Process
  • CCSD 695: Research and Assessment in Student Affairs
  • CCSD 699: Master’s Culminating Project

Research Interests

  • Healing and liberation-centered praxis
  • Pedagogies of belonging in higher education
  • Transracial adoptee and multiracial solidarity