The CCSN celebrates with one of its members, Elaine V. Fung, upon the successful defense of her dissertation. Welcome to the Academy, Dr. Fung!
Elaine V. Fung successfully defended her dissertation titled, Linking in Faith, Gender, Leadership, and Digital Communication: A Mixed-Methods Exploration of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities Women Presidents’ and Provosts’ LinkedIn. This dissertation research explored the complex intersection of faith, gender, leadership, and digital communication through the lens of standpoint theory.
The study investigated how underrepresented leaders, Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) women presidents and provosts, used LinkedIn to construct their leaders’ reputation through their professional leadership identities and values. From Fall 2025, there were 54 LinkedIn profiles and 7,198 engagements (from 43 profiles) from CCCU women presidents and provosts. The mixed-methods content analysis included descriptive statistics, word frequencies, and thematic analysis.
The CCCU women presidents and provosts used LinkedIn profiles and engagements to communicate their professional leadership identities and values. Seven themes emerged: women, faith, optimism, leadership, collaboration, higher education, and call to action. Their faith and gender-based standpoints emerged as Christian, women, and Christian women. This combined standpoint contributed to the faith and gender intersectional standpoint. In a digital communication era, leaders and emerging leaders can strategically use platforms like LinkedIn to authentically share their leadership identities and values, which can also include their faith and gender-based standpoints.
Elaine has served as a student fellow with the CCSN over the past three years. We are pleased to announce that she will be the CCSN’s first-ever Post-doc Research Fellow. She will assist with the CCSN’s peer-reviewed press (Integratio Press) and journal (Journal of Christian Teaching Practice).