Pack IDEAs Student Spotlight: Victoria Chavis ‘23PHD

In each edition of Pack IDEAs (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access), a newsletter released by the NC State College of Education Change Agent Task Force, we highlight faculty, students and alumni who have expertise and experiences that align with advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within the college. In becoming an anti-racist college community, we must deepen our commitment to creating and sustaining a healthy teaching and learning community that uplifts the humanity of all people, but especially Black, Indigenous and people of color, who due to structural inequities are marginalized in education and society. The spotlight feature offers a counternarrative that celebrates and showcases the brilliance of individuals within our college community.

Victoria Chavis ‘23PHD
Higher Education Program
Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development

As a college adviser with the Carolina College Advising Corps, Victoria Chavis ‘23PHD discovered that she really enjoyed working with students. That newfound discovery led her to the NC State College of Education, where she is a second-year doctoral student in the higher education program with plans of also earning an advanced degree in social work one day.

“I want to one day produce research and policy changes that will generate equity and inclusion in public education across North Carolina,” she said.

Diversity, equity and inclusion in education are important to Chavis. As a citizen of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, she is passionate about diversity and equity work because of her experiences as an undergraduate student attending a predominantly white institution (PWI).

“It was hard enough to focus on academia in itself, but there was a constant struggle of justifying my presence on campus and educating others about historical and present Native issues. The quote ‘be the change you want to see in the world’ has really motivated me to continue to pursue higher education in order to generate change for all minoritized students in higher education,” Chavis said.

As a doctoral student at NC State, she says she wants to share in the heavy lifting of producing equity and inclusion at higher education institutions.

“Native people are not just a historical people, but a present people,” a quote Chavis shared from Zianne Richardson, a citizen of the Haliwa-Saponi Tribe.