Supporters say Black academic’s suicide was fueled by the very pressures she studied in her dissertation

Antoinette “Bonnie” Candia-Bailey was passionate about Black women in academia.

Years before she served as Lincoln University’s vice president of student affairs, Candia-Bailey wrote her dissertation on the hardships Black women face while climbing the professional ladder in academia. Her research and reflections in the thesis were eerily similar to the circumstances Candia-Bailey said she experienced in the months leading up to her death on Jan. 8.

“I had to go back and revisit her dissertation and I said, ‘Oh my God, all the things she wrote about, happened to her,’” said Comfort Okpala, a professor of leadership studies at North Carolina A&T State University who served as Candia-Bailey’s adviser for her 2016 Ph.D. dissertation.

The dissertation is titled “My Sister, Myself: The Identification of Sociocultural Factors that Affect the Advancement of African-American Women into Senior-Level Administrative Positions.” For her work, Candia-Bailey spoke with more than a dozen Black women in leadership positions, from associate dean to vice president at universities and colleges in North Carolina. They detailed being overlooked for “promotions and advancement, stereotyped, discriminated against,” all of which affected their satisfaction with their jobs.

“She was very passionate about this topic,” Okpala said. “It was based on her experiences in higher ed and the experiences of others that she’d observed. She told me the topic was dear to her heart.”

Antoinette “Bonnie” Candia-Bailey (Lincoln University)

Candia-Bailey, 49, died by suicide in Illinois. Her mother, Veronica Candia, and husband Anthony Bailey, previously told NBC News that the Missouri university’s president John Moseley terminated her employment in the days before her death. Bailey also said she had been feeling depressed and unsupported at work; during the holiday break in December, she told her family that her relationship with Moseley had soured, without providing any other specifics.

Candia-Bailey’s longtime friend Monica Graham said she received an email from Candia-Bailey the day she died that included a letter addressed to Moseley. In the letter, Candia-Bailey expressed concerns about Moseley’s leadership, the school administration, and wrote that Moseley “intentionally harassed and bullied” her. The death prompted protests from students and alumni, calling for Moseley’s ouster.

Emails reportedly from Candia-Bailey to Moseley and the board of curators revealed that she was rebuffed when she requested medical leave and accommodations as she struggled with severe depression and anxiety, according to KRCG, which cited emails purportedly obtained by someone close to Candia-Bailey.

Neither did Moseley nor the board of curators for Lincoln University, a historically Black institution, immediately respond to a request for comment.

Along with student protests and an online movement to oust Moseley, Candia-Bailey’s advocates have lamented that Black women in academia often face disproportionate roadblocks and discrimination with little to no protection from the institutions. In her Ph.D., she declared that higher education institutions must do more to address the myriad problems Black women endure in academia, including “being treated like the help; outsiders; keeping them away from the table; having a voice and discounting their experiences, skillset and value to higher education because of their race, age, and gender.”

Research has shown that Black women are severely underrepresented in leadership positions at higher education institutions in the country. Even after overcoming the barriers to getting into these positions, once they are in them, Black women face severe race- and gender-based discrimination, according to research published in the Frontiers in Sociology journal.

This is a shared experience among Black women in leadership positions across the country, like Brandi Hinnant-Crawford, associate professor of educational leadership at Clemson University. She co-wrote a 2021 essay about racism and misogyny in academia. She said she believes higher education institutions seldom support Black women who seek help within their roles, and the effects are damaging.

“We are given extra work. We are expected to do extra service,” Hinnant-Crawford said. “We are expected to be everyone’s DEI expert. We are expected to be there for every student who needs additional nurturing. But when we need nurturing, we’re supposed to be superwoman. The institution has nothing for us.”

Moseley is on paid leave while a third party reviews both the school’s handling of personnel issues and Candia-Bailey’s allegations, the university’s board of curators said in a news release.

“As a Board, we are committed to make certain the mental health of Lincoln University employees is a priority and that every employee is always treated with dignity and respect,” board President Victor Pasley said in a separate statement previously shared with NBC News.

Protests over the circumstances surrounding Candia-Bailey’s death continued on Tuesday, with dozens of students showing up outside a closed Board of Curators meeting to demand accountability. Hinnant-Crawford said she supports the protests and calls for Moseley’s ouster, but she hopes support for Candia-Bailey, and Black women in academia, doesn’t stop there.

“I feel like that’s a start,” she said, “but true justice for Antoinette would be a shift in the academic culture.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.

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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com