Jan Barker-Alexander

Contact

• P: 650.353.0735
• E: jbarker@stanford.edu

Jan Barker Alexander is an award-winning higher education professional with more than two decades of experience who has created programs that serve as a national model for intellectual engagement, cultural awareness, leadership development, and social justice.

She currently serves as Assistant Vice Provost of Student Affairs and Executive Director of the Centers of Equity, Community, and Leadership (ECL).  (Asian American Activities Center, Black Community Services Center, El Centro Chicano y Latino, Queer Resources Center, Markaz-Community Resource Center, Native American Cultural Center, and the Women’s Community Center). The mission of ECL is grounded in values of justice, equity, and belonging at Stanford and beyond.  As educators, advocates, and thought leaders, we empower students to be bold collaborators and innovative leaders preparing them to navigate a complex world with the most vulnerable in mind.  She also serves as a Resident Fellow in Ujamaa House, the African American themed house on campus.

Barker Alexander began her career at Louisiana State University in the Office of Admissions, where she engaged in outreach efforts that focused on several populations, including rural, urban, first-generation and low-income students.

Barker Alexander joined Stanford University's Undergraduate Admissions team in 1995 as an Associate Director.  She traveled nationally, representing the University while working with alumni groups on outreach efforts, and reading thousands of admissions applications. She also worked with a Diversity Team in the office to bring awareness and sensitivity to issues facing students from underrepresented groups. 

In 1998, Barker Alexander joined Stanford's Division of Student Affairs, where she has spearheaded many efforts that have made the University's Black Community Services Center a national model of excellence. 

She led, along with an Alumni Leadership Team and the National Black Alumni Association, the first-ever fundraising campaign focused on affinity giving at the institution[ECR1] that raised close to $1.3 million dollars.  This campaign supported the renovation of existing space and the creation of a new 2,500 square foot multi-purpose facility and a 3,000 square foot deck for outside activities.

In 2006, Barker Alexander added another responsibility to her plate: Resident Fellow at Ujamaa House.  She works tirelessly to foster intellectual engagement in the dorm. She co-taught two classes, "Black Sitcoms: An Examination of Blackness on Television," and "Black Cinema: A Critique of the Portrayals of Blackness on the Silver Screen."  Barker Alexander also views her role as creating opportunities for greater intellectual discovery outside of the classroom, and specifically in the residences.  In March, she will take a group of students to New Orleans to examine Mardi Gras through a Black Lens.

In 2011, Barker Alexander's success in building a nationally recognized program at the Black Community Services Center was recognized with a Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Distinctive Contributions to Undergraduate Education at Stanford. In 2012 she was recognized by College Board with the Asa Hilliard Model of Excellence Award at their national “A Dream Deferred” conference.  She was cited for her innovative leadership and mutlti-faceted approach in molding and shaping the nation’s top scholar activists who will be poised to solve the many problems facing the Black community.

Barker Alexander is from Franklinton, a small, rural town in Louisiana.  She received her B.A. in Journalism from Louisiana State University and a Master's in Education from Southern University, a historically Black College and University.  She is currently working on her doctorate at the University of Southern California. She is married to Frederick Alexander, her high school sweetheart and has two children.