About Dr. Alex

Dr. Alesondra (Alex) Christmas Stapleton is an artist-scholar, organizer, and cultural strategist who helps universities and institutions build the conditions for lasting culture change. Her work sits at the intersection of scholarship, embodied practice, and institutional strategy, using arts-forward thinking, dialogue across difference, and co-design to turn lived experience into practical, just solutions.

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With over a decade of experience spanning higher education and the nonprofit sector, Dr. Alex specializes in the full arc of complex, multi-stakeholder change work. Grounded in servant and transformational leadership and guided by measurable impact, she has led the design and execution of 60+ community-centered programs, raised over $200,000 in philanthropic and grant funding, and facilitated more than 200 educational and strategic sessions for diverse audiences. She partners closely with cross-functional leadership teams to translate big-picture vision into actionable strategy, navigating the political and human complexity of institutional change with rigor and relational skill.

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Her scholarly foundation runs deep. Dr. Alex earned her PhD in Dance Studies at The Ohio State University, where her research examined the nuances of racism and intersectional oppression in the performing arts, with particular focus on Racial Battle Fatigue among Black women dance educators. Her academic work uplifts the thought, labor, and creative practices of Black women in dance, and she has presented at national and international conferences including the Dance Studies Association, Collegium for African Diaspora Dance, Ohio Dance Festival, and Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

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Dr. Alex works to dismantle white supremacy through anti-racist curriculum design for university programs and the public. She has designed and taught courses including African Diaspora Dance in the 21st Century and Antiracism in the Performing Arts, and created two free public courses, Anti-Racism in the Arts: The Basics and Anti-Racism & Social Justice in Dance, to widen access to this work beyond the academy. Through intergroup dialogue facilitation, justice-centered workshops, and embodied practice, she helps individuals and organizations move through difficult conversations about race and systemic injustice toward collective liberation.

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She also brings Black feminist and social justice praxis into her creative work as a dance dramaturg, and is a co-founder of Thick Like Me, a dance organization centering thick Black women dancers in creative and academic discourse and advocating for the dismantling of racism, sexism, and fat-phobia in dance and beyond.

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Dr. Alex holds a Bachelor of Science in Theater with minors in Dance and Advertising, and a certificate in Cultural Competency, from Central Michigan University. She previously performed with Hue Productions and the University Theater Dance Company.