Crystal Lee-Thao
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Pronouns: she/her/hers
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Doctoral Candidate, HE
Areas of interest
- Student identity development
- Student engagement and involvement
- Family interdependence on academic motivation
- Hmong-American college students
MA, Higher Education, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, 2017
BA, Communications and Rhetorical Studies, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 2012
Crystal Lee-Thao is a Hmong-American woman and daughter of refugees. This identity has shaped her into a passionate, action-oriented educator, leader, and scholar with over 10 years of experience in higher education, particularly in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, project and program management, and administrative leadership. Crystal's main areas of research focus on the access and equity of student engagement practices and impacts, the role of family and culture in student motivation, and Hmong-American college students. Currently, Crystal serves as a Strategic Initiatives Lead for the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota, as well as an adjunct instructor for the College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences’ Career & Internship Services.
Stebleton, M.J., Lee, C., & Diamond, K. (2020). Understanding the food insecurity experiences of college students: A qualitative inquiry. The Review of Higher Education, 43(3), 727-752.
Stebleton, M.J., Kaler, L., Diamond, K., & Lee, C.. (2020) Examining career readiness in a liberal arts undergraduate career planning course. Journal of Employment Counseling, 57, 14-26.
Stebleton, M.J., Franklin, M., Lee, C., & Kaler, L.S. (2019). Not just for undergraduates: Examining a university narrative-based career management course for engineering graduate students. Canadian Journal of Career Development, 18(2), 64-77.
Do, T., Zhang, Y., Lee-Thao, C., Earnest, M., & Varma, K. (2022, February 2-4). Paid virtual summer research experience: Belonging and science identity. The National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students, St. Louis, MO, United States.
Lee-Thao, C., Do, T., Zhang, Y., Fabunmi, R., & Varma, K. (2022, April 22-25). Purposeful practices: Understanding the undergraduate research experiences of underrepresented STEM students. American Educational Research Association Conference, San Diego, CA, United States.
Zhang, Y., Lee-Thao, C., Do, T., Fabunmi, R., & Varma, K. (2022, April 22-25). Improving underrepresented minority STEM students’ success through well-established culturally responsive programming. American Educational Research Association Conference, San Diego, CA, United States.
Lee, C. (2020, August). Values are like Fingerprints. Keynote workshop at the alpha Kappa Delta Phi International Sorority, Inc. 2020 Back to School Retreat (BTSR) (virtual due to coronavirus pandemic).
Lee, C.. (November 2017). Engagement Means...Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Minnesota College Professionals Association, Minneapolis, MN.
DeSalvo, A., Lee, C.K., & Lee, C. (November 2016). Reflective Justice: A Search for Alignment Between Social Justice Praxis and Queer and Trans Lives at the University of Minnesota. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Minnesota College Professionals Association, Duluth, MN.