Who Leads at Lehigh?

Who Leads at Lehigh?

Efua Yankey '28 requested the leadership roster data from the Office of Student Involvement (OSI) and discovered a massive data flaw: the university systematically collected names and titles, but failed to track gender demographics entirely, rendering leadership disparities unmeasurable.

Why it matters

• Student leadership = practice field for professional roles
• President today → Manager tomorrow
• Treasurer today → Executive tomorrow

The action taken

• Action is multiple. Staff in the OSI will begin collecting gender-based data of club and org leadership members. She rapidly pivoted to launch an independent qualitative campus climate survey that garnered 53 detailed responses. Her data proved that 62.3% of students observed explicit gender patterns in roles, with qualitative remarks exposing deep-seated board misogyny and power imbalances.

Hidden institutional reality 

• Women on co-ed executive boards frequently cluster in operational roles (Secretary, Communications) while men dominate strategic roles (President, Treasurer). Her project elevated students' consciousness while simultaneously creating space to build data to confirm students’ suspicions about gender imbalances within student clubs and orgs' leadership.

What's next

• Stemming from Efua’s discovery, the GLE Center has implemented a partnership with the Office of Student Involvement. Starting Fall 2026, the Office of Student Involvement will encourage students to self-report gender on all student leadership rosters to monitor equity over time. Additionally, inclusive leadership curriculum will be officially embedded into major annual events like PreLUsion and the Great Pocono Escape. Working together, the GLE and the OSI can develop inclusive leadership modules to embed in leadership training across both departments, enabling them to reach over 200 organizations. Student ambassadors will be needed to reach this large-scale work.

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