Influential Woman · Higher Education
Ashonta Wyatt
Vice Chancellor (EMSS), Southern University at New Orleans
New Orleans, LA
Her Story
About Ashonta
I've been in education for over 20 years, starting in 1999, and I'm currently serving as the Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Management and Student Success at Southern University at New Orleans. In my role, I govern everything from student applications and admissions through their first and second year experience, including housing, clubs, organizations, compliance (ADA, Title IX), and community service learning, which is a graduation requirement. I oversee about 6 departments including the Office of Student Leadership and engagement, where our Student Government Association and our 66th Miss Southern University at New Orleans are housed. My main goal is to serve as the Vice Chancellor for Students. Before joining SUNO in September 2024, I ran my own consulting firm doing advocacy work for marginalized communities, representing families and students with K-12 school system issues. I also do speaking engagements and advocacy work around mothers who have lost children to gun violence through my nonprofit, Mother to Mother. I was featured on CNN and served as a producer on the Hulu documentary 'Algiers America,' which highlighted the Edna Carr High School football team's quest for their fifth consecutive state championship while navigating gun violence in New Orleans. I've done extensive community advocacy work, including launching a Change.org petition that amassed 11,000 signatures and forced the Jefferson Parish Police Department to start wearing body cameras after 9 Black men were consecutively killed by police without accountability. I previously served as a principal at a middle school where I discovered the board chair was stealing money from students. I spoke up about it, was wrongfully terminated, and was blacklisted for 8 years. I reached out to the FBI, and after a 2-year investigation, the board chair was indicted, convicted, and is currently serving 5 years in federal jail. My current chancellor, Senator Dr. Joseph Bowie, waived the search process and handpicked me to serve as his vice chancellor based on my community work and advocacy.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Ashonta
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to standing up for what's right, even when it costs me. My most notable professional achievement would have to be standing up for the students and families of Edgar P. Harney in 2019, even though it cost me my career at the time. If I had to do it over again, I would, because my students were in a building without books. We didn't have enough teachers. Some days we barely made payroll, and it was all because the board chair was taking the money to fund his lavish lifestyle, but he did it at the expense of students who were already living in poverty, and I said something about it. It cost me my job. But I would do it again. I believe my gifts made room for me. Being fired pushed me beyond the comfort of my K-12 experience, and it made me think about the people who don't have the folk to support them, who don't have the community to rally around them. I believe that comfort is not a place where we grow. Being pushed outside of a comfort zone, being fired from a job like I was, even though it was unjustly, I believe being fired pushed me to do more, to speak up more, to advocate more. And that's what led me here to Southern University at New Orleans, where my chancellor handpicked me to serve as his vice chancellor.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say start. Dream big. Have big, audacious dreams, because I think sometimes we play ourselves short. We minimize ourselves when we're made for more. A no is not an opportunity to stop. By no means, you have to pivot. And sometimes, where you think you ought to be, opportunities will show you where you deserve to be. I never envisioned being the vice chancellor of a university, but it was because I stood up in the way that I did, and I went through what I went through, that I believe my gifts made room for me. I would say have big, audacious dreams, and don't be afraid to fail, because failure is where we truly find out what we're made of. Until you really know yourself, until you really know what it's like to persevere, I don't think you truly live. Because comfort is not a place where we grow. I think being pushed outside of a comfort zone made me say to myself that if this happened to me, with the credentials I have, and with all of the work I've done in my field, I think about the people who don't have the folk to support them, who don't have the community to rally around them. I would say start. Do it scared, do it afraid, do it nervous, do it broke, do it without even knowing what the outcome is gonna be. Start, and dream as big as you could possibly dream. If you're not dreaming as big as you should, I think you're going to scare yourself, and I think the best of opportunity lies on the other side of fear.
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