Nicole Hodges Persley, PhD

Nicole Hodges Persley, Ph.D., is a distinguished scholar, artist, and community leader who currently serves as the Vice Provost of Community Impact at the University of Kansas (KU). With over two decades of experience in advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), Dr. Hodges Persley has become a nationally recognized voice for creating equitable pathways that bridge academic and creative communities. She is the former Vice Provost of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at KU, where she led innovative strategies to create equitable administrative structures and initiatives.

A tenured, award-winning professor, Dr. Hodges Persley holds dual faculty appointments in American Studies and African and African-American Studies at KU. Her interdisciplinary teaching spans acting, directing, Hip-Hop Studies, Performance Studies, African American Studies, and transnational performance. As a scholar-artist, she has made significant contributions to Theater and Performance Studies, with a research emphasis on Black performance and Hip-Hop theater. She is the former President of The Black Theater Association focus group of ATHE and has served as an elected board member for the Association for Theatre Research and the National Theatre Conference.

Her published works include Sampling and Remixing Blackness in Hip-Hop Theater and Performance (University of Michigan, 2021), the anthology Black Matters: Lewis Morrow Plays (Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama, 2022), Breaking it Down: Audition Techniques for Actors of the Global Majority (co-authored with Dr. Monica White Ndounou), Hip-Hop in Musical Theater (Bloomsbury Drama, 2023), and co-editor of Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop (Bloomsbury, 2023). Her scholarship has been recognized for its impact on contemporary performance and its focus on the voices and experiences of the global majority.

As the Artistic Director of KC Melting Pot Theater, Kansas City’s premier African American theater company, Dr. Hodges Persley has directed critically acclaimed productions and short films that have received widespread acclaim. She is also a member of SAG-AFTRA and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, actively working within professional circles to advocate for greater opportunity and representation for global majority artists.

Dr. Hodges Persley is a co-founder of CreateEnsemble.com, the first collaborative digital platform designed to support artists and allies of the global majority. Her academic credentials include a Ph.D. and M.A. in American Studies & Ethnicity from the University of Southern California, an M.A. in African American Studies from UCLA, MA.A. in American Studies from USC, and a B.A., summa cum laude, in French from Spelman College.