Betty Overton-Adkins, Ph.D., serves as faculty in the Ethical and Creative Leadership Concentration in the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program at Union Institute & University.  She also teaches courses in the Educational Studies Program. She has taught at the University of Michigan in the Center for the Study of Higher and Post-secondary Education,  Spring Arbor University, the Salzburg Seminars,  Western Michigan University, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and Fisk University.

From 2013 to 2017 she served as Director of the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, she was the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Spring Arbor University. She spent ten years as Director of Higher Education Programming at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and a program officer in leadership. Additional administrative experiences include work as a graduate dean, department chair and active roles as a peer reviewer for both the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

Her research centers on issues of organizational management in higher education, minority serving institutions, women in higher education, and diversity and inclusion. Her most recent publication is entitled Engaged Research and Practice: Higher Education and the Pursuit of the Public Good.

Dr. Overton-Adkins earned a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership and Higher Education from Vanderbilt University, an MA and BS in English from Tennessee State University. She is a frequent consultant on the issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.