Amber Manning-Ouellette

Dr. Amber Manning-Ouellette serves as Associate Professor in the Educational Foundations, Leadership & Aviation department at Oklahoma State University's College of Education. She also holds the significant administrative role of Interim Vice President for Student Affairs at OSU and has been awarded the prestigious Anderson, Farris, and Halligan Professorship for College Student Development. As a Hargis Leadership Faculty Fellow, Dr. Manning-Ouellette bridges academic scholarship with practical leadership in higher education administration.

Her research interests span socially just leadership education, college student learning and identity development, postsecondary sexual health education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. Through various contexts including international education, historical methods, STEM education, and gender perspectives, she examines how students develop leadership capacities and navigate identity formation in college settings. Her work particularly focuses on marginalized populations and how educational structures can be transformed to support more equitable outcomes.

Dr. Manning-Ouellette's scholarly output reveals consistent focus areas across her publications. Her research demonstrates strong commitment to social justice in leadership education, with particular emphasis on liberatory frameworks that challenge traditional power structures. She has made significant contributions to understanding college-level sex education, with multiple publications examining curriculum gaps and opportunities for improvement. Her work on international leadership development, particularly through study abroad experiences, shows how global contexts enhance leadership learning. Additionally, her research on diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education addresses critical gaps in career development services for historically excluded populations.

• Anderson, Farris, and Halligan Professorship for College Student Development
• Hargis Leadership Faculty Fellow
• Anderson, Farris, and Halligan College Student Development Endowed Professorship (2019)

Dr. Manning-Ouellette has secured significant research funding including the NASPA IV-West Region Research Grant (2025), the Humanities-, Arts-, And Design-Based (HAD) Disciplines Research Project Grant from OSU's Vice President of Research (2022), and the Understanding Diversity Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Pedagogies grant from the National Career Development Association (2021). She has advised numerous graduate students through doctoral dissertation committees and directed readings in higher education and student affairs. Her teaching portfolio includes foundational courses in student development theory, assessment in higher education, college student sexuality, and leadership studies, along with supervising internships and capstone experiences for graduate students in higher education administration.