Dr. Bonike Leigh Ed.D.

Welcome to my corner of ChatAfrik

My name is Dr. Bonike Leigh. I am a higher education administrator, educator, scholar, speaker, and international education practitioner with over two decades of experience across education, leadership, student development, immigration compliance, and equity-centered advocacy. I currently serve as the Director of International Student Services at Hamilton College and have dedicated much of my professional life to understanding how systems shape educational access, belonging, opportunity, and identity.

I earned my doctorate in Community College Leadership from Kansas State University, where my dissertation explored the complex realities of international student compliance through a Foucauldian lens. The work examined how power, surveillance, regulation, institutional structures, and care intersect within educational systems, particularly in the experiences of international students and the professionals who support them.

That lens continues to shape how I engage education, leadership, and social justice today.

On this platform, I will write about education in both the United States and Nigeria across multiple levels, from primary and secondary education to higher education, leadership, policy, culture, student engagement, access, equity, and institutional practice. This is not comparative writing intended to determine which system is “better.” Rather, it is reflective and analytical writing that explores how historical, political, cultural, economic, and social forces shape educational realities differently across contexts.

I am deeply interested in the hidden curriculum of education: who gets access, who is silenced, who is empowered, who is excluded, and how institutions consciously or unconsciously reproduce inequality while simultaneously presenting themselves as spaces of transformation.

Beyond administration, I am passionate about mentorship, global learning, intellectual discourse, and challenging us to think more critically about the systems we participate in every day.

I have served in leadership and mentorship roles within organizations such as the Association of International Educators(NAFSA) and the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA), presented at national conferences, written on issues impacting international education, and advocated for inclusive and humane educational practices. Yet, I believe the most meaningful learning still happens through dialogue.

This space welcomes critical feedback, intellectual disagreement, thoughtful debate, and nuanced conversation. I do not believe growth happens in echo chambers. I believe education should provoke reflection, curiosity, discomfort, imagination, and accountability.

Thank you for being here. I look forward to learning alongside you.