Gayles Wins Ohio State’s Distinguished Alumna Award

RALEIGH, North Carolina — Joy Gaston Gayles, an associate professor of higher education in NC State University’s College of Education, has received The Ohio State University’s Maude A. Stewart Award. The award is presented annually to alumni of Ohio State’s student personnel assistantship program who demonstrate exceptional leadership, service and innovation in the profession of higher education and student affairs.

Gayles joined the NC State College of Education faculty in 2007. Her research focuses on the college student experience and how those experiences impact desired outcomes of undergraduate education, particularly for student-athletes as well as women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields.

Her research has been published in the Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, and Journal of College Student Development, among others. She has also been quoted in numerous national news publications, including most recently in The Washington Post about her research on intercollegiate athletics.

Courses she teaches include college student development theories, student characteristics and college environments, and diversity issues in higher education.

She previously was an assistant professor at Florida State University.

Gayles earned her doctorate in educational administration and higher education from Ohio State, her master’s in higher education administration from Auburn University, and her bachelor’s in adapted physical education and kinesiotherapy from Shaw University.