Dr. Ronnie Gladden is an international speaker, author, actor, and tenured college professor. They regularly speak about identity, diversity, and belonging for K-12 schools, universities, and non-profits, including the Ronald McDonald House Charities, the city of Cincinnati, and Northern Kentucky University, and more. In addition to advising student LGBTQ+ organizations, Dr. Ronnie has implemented critical diversity and inclusion training curricula and dynamic speaking series across multiple campuses. Their approach centers on fostering identity reconciliation, empowerment, and independent representation via authentic, transformative, and diverse leadership practices.  

Dr. Ronnie holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Northern Kentucky University, where they defended and published a dissertation on diversity leadership and intersectionality. They have also earned a Master of Fine Arts from Miami University, Master of Education from Xavier University, and a Bachelor of Arts from University of Cincinnati. They attended the International Summer Schools Study at the University of Cambridge, and have been accepted into the dramatic performance program at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music and into a prestigious conference at The Juilliard School. 

Along with their contribution to Mithu M. Sanyal's awarding-winning book Identiti, Professor Gladden has been featured in UCLA’s Queer Cats Journal, Medium, POPSUGAR, and Yahoo! Additionally, Dr. Ronnie was mentored by Jackie Mitchard (Deep End of the Ocean and the first inductee into the Oprah Winfrey Book Club) and Alissa Nutting (Made for Love). Also, Dr. Ronnie appeared in a documentary about complex identity, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2018 and now streams on Netflix.