Cia Verschelden is the author of Bandwidth Recovery: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism, and Social Marginalization (2017), in which she makes the case that the mental bandwidth of many college students in certain non-majority groups is depleted by persistent economic insecurity and psychosocial underminers, like racism and homophobia. She describes in-class and out-of-class interventions and attention to campus environments that can help students regain bandwidth so they can be academically successful. Her new book (2020) applies these concepts to children and youth: Bandwidth Recovery for Schools: Helping Pre-K-12 Students Regain Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Trauma, Racism and Social Marginalization.

Cia recently completed a two-year appointment as Special Projects Advisor for the Integration of Academic and Student Affairs at the American Association of Colleges and Universities. Her last post at an institution was Vice President for Academic & Student Affairs at Malcolm X College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago. From 2012-2018, she was the Executive Director of Institutional Assessment at University of Central Oklahoma where she also taught in sociology. From 2009-2012, she was the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Highland Community College in Kansas. She was on the faculty at Kansas State University from 1989 to 2008, on the Social Work faculty for 11 years, Director of Women’s Studies, and then Director of Assessment. Cia has a B.S. in psychology from K-State, an M.S.W. from The University of Connecticut, and an Ed.D. from Harvard University.