This qualitative constructivist grounded theory study used an integrated intersectional lens and Chicana feminist epistemology to examine how nine queer Latina leaders in higher education experienced their racialized and heterogendered positioning within higher education structures, how this shaped the everyday experiences of their work, and how they negotiated their identities to persist and ultimately enact change within their institutional settings. Following the principle of intersectionality theory that the multiple identities of an individual influence the ways they experience and navigate the world (Crenshaw, 1989), and within the context of higher education institutions in this study, the emerging themes included (a) "identity negotiation," (b) "fragmentation," and (c) "heartbreak in leading," and within the context of contesting power within these institutional contexts to enact change, the emerging themes included the (d) "alchemizing of wounds" and (e) "bending," "shifting," "recreating." These emergent theoretical categories of this study illuminated the ways that the queer Latina body, as an archival site--often experiencing fragmentation and struggle--can lend powerful roadmaps of resistance, new ways of being, and healing. These phenomenological realities of navigating multiple power structures from the queer Latina leader standpoint provide rich insight into alternative ways of leading in higher education, especially in the face of institutional resistance within obstinate environments. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]