Dr. Lissa D. Ramirez-Stapleton is an associate professor at California State University Northridge in the Department of Deaf Studies and core faculty for the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies program. Her research focuses on equity and access, identity development, and the educational history of Deaf students, faculty, and staff, with a particular interest in the intersections of race, gender, and disability.

Her desire to support Deaf college students of color led Ramirez-Stapleton to pursue her doctorate at Iowa State University. She graduated in 2014 with her Ph.D. in education with an emphasis on higher education and social justice and a minor in women’s studies. She won the 2015 Melvene D. Hardee NASPA Dissertation of the Year award,  is a 2018 Ford Postdoctoral Fellow, and is a 2019 Nancy Weiss Malkiel Scholar through The Institute for Citizens & Scholars.

Previously, Ramirez-Stapleton worked in student affairs at various institutions and with Semester at Sea. She is involved with the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the National Black Deaf Advocates. She earned her M.S.E. in college student personnel from the University of Dayton and her B.S. in social work from Wright State University. Her scholarship can be found in various journals and public outlets. The following are selected publications.

Ramirez-Stapleton, L.D., & Duarte, D.(2021). When you think you know: Restorative justice between a faculty member and a Deaf + student. New Directions in Student Services, 11-26. https://doi: 10.1002/ss.20374

Stapleton, L.D. & Gillon, K.E. (2021). Audism and hearing privilege within higher education: A snapshot into the lives of diverse Deaf communities. In Hinton, K.G., Grim, V., Howard-Hamilton, M.F., Brown, O.G., & Davenport, M. Y. (2nd ed.), Unleashing suppressed voices on college campuses: Diversity issues in higher education (pp. 27-43). Peter Lang.

Schley, S. & Ramirez-Stapleton, L.D., (2021). Lessons from segregated schools can help make today’s classrooms more inclusive. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-segregated-schools-can-help-make-todays-classrooms-more-inclusive-159791

Johnson, S.G., Stapleton, L.D., & Berrett, B. (2020) Deaf community cultural wealth among community college students. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 25(4), 438-446, https://doi.org/10.1093/deafed/enaa016

 Stapleton, L.D., & James, L. (2020). Not another White study: Challenging color-evasiveness ideology in disability scholarship. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 33(3), 213-320.

Ramirez-Stapleton, L.D. & Torres, L. (Eds.). (2020). Special Issue on Disability justice, race & education. Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity. 6(1), 28-39. https://journals.shareok.org/jcscore/issue/view/11

Brown, K., Peña, E.V., Broido, E.M., Stapleton, L.D., & Evans, N.J. (2019). Understanding disability frameworks in higher education research.  In J. Huisman and M. Tight (Eds.)., Theory and Method in Higher Education Research.  (Vol 5., pp. 19-36). Emerald Publishing Limited.

Stapleton, L.D. & Nicolazzo, Z. (2019). Greek life reimagined: Deaf culture and mainstream Greek life. New Directions in Student Services, 165, 87-98. http://doi:10.1002/ss.20289.

Peña, E., Stapleton, L.D., Brown, K., Stygles, K., Broido, E., & Rankin, S. (2018). Scholarship and Assessment of Disability Experiences in Higher Education: Emerging perspectives.  College Student Affairs Journal, 36(2), 1-14.

Stapleton, L.D., & Croom, N.N. (2017). Narratives of Black d/Deaf college alum: Reflections on intersecting microaggressions in college. Journal of Student Affairs, Research, and Practice, 54(1), 15-27.