Rate My Professor Juanita Johnson-Bailey

Juanita Johnson-Bailey is a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor and University Professor serving as a professor of Adult Education in the Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy at the University of Georgia. She directed the Institute for Women’s Studies from 2010 to 2022, holding a joint appointment there, and has been on the UGA faculty since 1995, advancing from Assistant Professor to full Professor. Her positions have included Graduate Coordinator (2005-2007), Associate Department Head (2007-2009), and Interim Director of the Institute for Women’s Studies (2009-2010). Johnson-Bailey earned her Ed.D. and M.Ed. in Adult Education from the University of Georgia in 1994, a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from UGA in 1993, and a B.A. in Communications from Mercer University in 1974.

Her research specializes in race and gender in educational and workplace settings, yielding over 100 publications in adult education and women’s studies. Key works include Sistahs in College: Making a Way Out of No Way (Krieger Press, 2001), recipient of the Phillip E. Frandson Award and Sadie T. Mossell Alexander Award, and co-editor of Handbook on Race and Racism in Adult and Higher Education: A Dialogue (Jossey-Bass, 2010). Prominent articles are “Different Worlds & Divergent Paths: Academic Careers Defined by Race and Gender” (Harvard Educational Review, 2008), “Lean on Me: The Support Experiences of Black Graduate Students” (Journal of Negro Education, 2008), and “Rooted in the Soil: The Social Experiences of Black Graduate Students at a Southern Research University” (Journal of Higher Education, 2009). She has lectured nationally and internationally, served as consulting editor for Adult Education Quarterly since 1995, and contributed chapters to handbooks like The Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education. Major awards encompass the Centennial Professorship (2022), Zenobia L. Hikes Woman of Color in the Academy Award (2022), Career Achievement Award from the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education (2018), Eleanor Roosevelt Fund Award (2015), International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame (2009), and Graduate School Outstanding Mentoring Award (2006). She is also a Houle Scholar, Lilly Teaching Fellow, and Salzburg Seminar Fellow.