Dr. Ronnie Gladden is an international speaker, actor, and tenured college professor. They regularly speak about identity, diversity, and inclusion for K-12 schools, universities, and nonprofits, including the Ronald McDonald House Charities, the city of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky University, and more. In addition to advising student LGBTQ+ organizations, Dr. Gladden has implemented critical diversity and inclusion training curricula and dynamic speaking series across multiple campuses. Their approach centers on fostering identity reconciliation, empowerment, and independent representation via authentic, transformative, and diverse leadership practices.

Dr. Gladden holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Northern Kentucky University, where they defended and published a dissertation on diversity leadership and intersectionality. They have also earned a master of fine arts from Miami University, a master of education from Xavier University, and a bachelor of arts from the University of Cincinnati. They attended the International Summer Schools Study at the University of Cambridge and have been accepted into the dramatic performance program at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music and into a prestigious conference at The Juilliard School.

Along with their contribution to Mithu M. Sanyal’s award-winning book Identitti, Dr. Gladden has been featured in UCLA’s Queer Cats Journal, Medium, POPSUGAR, and Yahoo! Additionally, Dr. Gladden was mentored by Jackie Mitchard (The Deep End of the Ocean and the first inductee into the Oprah Winfrey Book Club) and Alissa Nutting (Made for Love). Also, Dr. Gladden appeared in The Rachel Divide, a documentary about complex identity, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018 and now streams on Netflix. Learn more at www.whitegirlwithin.com