Our Team

Dr. Shannon Shastry (she, her, hers)

Dr. Shastry serves as the Director for the Center for Diversity and Inclusion at Radford University. As a first-generation scholar, she received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Methodist University, her Master of Science in Higher Education with a concentration in College Administration and Leadership from Kaplan University, and her Doctorate in Educational Leadership with a concentration in higher education from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Her research focus includes women of color, leadership, and mentorship. Also, she holds certifications in Jeanne Clery Act Training, Managing Bias, Mental Health First Aid USA, and Mentoring, Coaching & Self-Mentoring.

She has over a decade of experience in higher education serving in various roles. Her areas of expertise includes, but are not limited to advocacy, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, strategic planning and crisis response.

Dr. Marilyn Ortega (she, her, hers)

Dr. Ortega serves as the Assistant Director for the Center for Diversity and Inclusion at Radford University. As a first-generation college student, she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Ethnic Studies and Bachelor of Arts in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies from Kansas State University. During her tenure at Kansas State University, she focused on expanding discourse around the School-to-Prison Pipeline to understand how the Prison Industrial Complex is as a reproductive justice issue terrorizing communities of color in the United States.

Dr. Ortega then went to the University of Kansas, where she earned a Master of Arts in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, a graduate degree in Indigenous Studies, and her Doctorate in American Studies. Her research and life work are grounded in her lived experiences and situated within the fields of Women of Color feminisms, Critical Trauma Studies, and Critical Prisons Studies.

Dr. Ortega is a social innovator and visionary invested in building and nurturing coalitions across diverse communities through evidence-based strategies and decolonial praxis. She has over ten years of progressive experience in diversity and leadership experience within higher education, with expertise in transformative/social justice and abolition. 

Micah Untiedt (she, her, hers)

Micah Untiedt serves as the Office Manager for the Center of Diversity and Inclusion at Radford University. Born and raised in Appalachia, Micah attended Virginia Tech, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Cinema with a minor in Popular Culture. She then received her Master of Arts in Cinema Studies from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Her research focuses primarily on Feminist Film Studies, the Horror Film, and the role of women in 19^th Century Spiritualism.

With nearly a decade working in education from Pre-K to Higher-Ed, Micah works to build relationships with students and advocate for student needs in order to make the academic and social culture of education inclusive and equitable to all.