Virtual Talk: Dr. Donna Whyte: America, Race and Me

Dr. Whyte’s lifelong commitment to racial equity has its roots in her mother’s experience as a licensed pilot and Whyte’s education in Cleveland Public Schools. She will share how some of her successes, failures, and experiences with racial equity for her and her children have shaped her life’s work at Cleveland State University and involvement in the Shaker Heights community.

Presenter Bio: Dr. Donna McIntyre Whyte has a long career as a higher education professional in both administration and teaching at Cleveland State University. She is a native Clevelander, and graduate of Cleveland Public Schools. Moving to Shaker Heights in 1982, Whyte’s community involvement began as co-president of the Moreland Elementary School PTA. Subsequently, she is a former trustee of the Shaker Heights Board of Education and Shaker Heights Public Library Board, and currently serves on the city’s Neighborhood Revitalization Committee. She spent most of her 28-year administrative career at CSU as director of the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs from which she retired in 2013.

Since 2009, Whyte has been a part-time faculty member in the departments of history, comparative religion, black studies, and urban studies. Among her most popular courses are the Religious Ethics of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and Cleveland: The African-American Experience. In 2016-2017, she came out of retirement to serve as Interim Director of CSU’s Black Studies Program and Visiting Associate Professor. She is a co-author of the 2016 book, Busing, Boycotts and Beyond: The History & Implications of School Desegregation in the Urban North. Whyte has also held administrative positions at the University of California-Irvine, Temple University and The Ohio State University.

Whyte is proudest of the achievements of her daughters, Miata Hunter, principal of Shaker Heights Middle School, and Mariama Whyte, singer, songwriter, and arts educator. Dr. Whyte holds a bachelor’s in Spanish and master’s in Adult Education from The Ohio State University, and Ph. D. in Social Policy History from Case Western Reserve University.