My name is Larry Edmonds, although I will show up as Leonard in official places, but no one who knows me EVER calls me Leonard. I can always recognize an unsolicited sales phone call when the person on the other end begins with “Hi, Len,” or “Hello, Lenny.”

I came from a poor background and was an adult return student at Arizona State University (ASU) in my 40’s to finish my bachelor’s degree, then my master’s (I was awarded the Dessie E. Larsen Fellowship), and then as a full-time faculty member in Communication at ASU (I taught at ASU from 2000, retiring in late 2019) and earned my doctorate in Higher Education/Educational Leadership and Innovation at ASU (one might say I am Sun Devil through-and-through). My research has been on the introduction of the intersectionality of gender and other cultural identities into the online university Gender and Communication class, with intersectionality including ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, and differently-abled. I employ(ed) arts-based data collection in my research. I taught and research diversity and am quite focused in the area as well as effective listening in various contexts (career and personal). I am occasionally called upon to speak on “Effective Listening/Shared Meaning in the Workplace” at conferences and other events.

I also worked directly with students for many years who are registered with ASU’s Disability Resources Center (DRC), and one of my DRC students from this past fall has done so well, she has now been accepted to law school. I was honored in 2015 by the Teacher Educators for Children with Behavioral Disorders with the 2015 Robert B. Rutherford, Jr. Fellowship. I am occasionally called upon to speak on “Invisible Disabilities in the Workplace” at various conferences and events. I also recently finished directing a BIS student thesis and mentored a student finishing her capstone project in fall 2016 for a student who is seeking to complete ASU’s LGBT certificate. I routinely work with Barrett Honors students who need to complete an honors contract for credit in one or more of their classes (over three dozen in the past few years).

Each year, I previously represented ASU at the Arizona State Articulation Task Force/ATF (when I tell people I was a member of ATF, they immediately tend to think Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms). I served on the university’s Transfer Matters 2016 committee, as well. I am also a veteran of the U.S. Navy (the Monitor, not the Merrimack).