aera dissertation award 2023

• Undergraduate Student Education Research Training
• Minority Dissertation Fellowship Program
• AERA Fellowship Program on the Study of Deeper Learning
• Funded Dissertation Grants
• Funded Research Grants
• Professional Development Courses
• External Fellowship and Funding Opportunities
• AERA Online Job Board
• Virtual Research Learning Center
• Voices from the Field

Share 

Call for Dissertation Grant Proposals AERA Grants Program Seeks Proposals for Dissertation Grants

Deadline: May 30, 2024

With support from the National Science Foundation, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Grants Program seeks proposals for Dissertation Grants. The AERA Grants Program provides advanced graduate students with research funding and professional development and training. The program supports highly competitive dissertation research using rigorous quantitative methods to examine large-scale, education-related data. The aim of the program is to advance fundamental knowledge of relevance to STEM education policy, foster significant science using education data, promote equity in STEM, and build research capacity in education and learning. Since 1991, this AERA Program has been vital to both research and training at early career stages.   

The Grants Program encourages the use of major data sets from multiple and diverse sources. It emphasizes the advanced statistical analysis of data sets from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and other federal agencies. The program also supports studies using large-scale international data systems (e.g., PISA, PIRLS, or TIMMS) that benefit from U.S. federal government support. In addition, statewide longitudinal administrative data systems (SLDS) enhanced through federal grants are also eligible for consideration. The inclusion of federal or state administrative information that further expands the analytic capacity of the research is permissible. The thrust of the analysis needs to be generalizable to a national, state, or population or a subgroup within the sample that the dataset represents.

The Grants Program is open to field-initiated research and welcomes proposals that:

• develop or benefit from advanced statistical or innovative quantitative methods or measures;
• analyze more than one large-scale national or international federally funded data set, or more than one statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS) or incorporate other data enhancements;
• integrate, link, or blend multiple large-scale data sources; or
• undertake replication research of major findings or major studies using large-scale, federally supported or enhanced data.

The Grants Program encourages proposals across the life span and contexts of education and learning of relevance to STEM policy and practice. The research may focus on a wide range of topics, including but not limited to such issues as student achievement in STEM, analysis of STEM education policies, contextual factors in education, educational participation and persistence (pre-kindergarten through graduate school), early childhood education and development, postsecondary education, and the STEM workforce and transitions. Studies that examine issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion across STEM topics and/or for specific racial and ethnic groups, social classes, genders, or persons with disabilities are encouraged.

Applicant Eligibility Dissertation Grants are available for advanced doctoral students and are intended to support the student while analyzing data and writing the doctoral dissertation. Proposals are encouraged from the full range of education research fields and other fields and disciplines engaged in education-related research, including economics, political science, psychology, sociology, demography, statistics, public policy, and psychometrics. Applicants for this one-year, non-renewable award should be advanced doctoral students at the dissertation writing stage, usually the last year of study. Applicants may be U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents enrolled in a doctoral program. Non­U.S. citizens enrolled in a doctoral program at an U.S. institution are also eligible to apply. Underrepresented racial and ethnic minority researchers as well as women, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply.

Data Set Eligibility The dissertation research project must include the analysis of large-scale data. The data set can originate from one or multiple sources, including (1) federal data bases, (2) federally supported national studies, (3) international data sets supported by federal funds, or (4) statewide longitudinal administrative data systems (SLDS) enhanced through federal grants. Although the emphasis is on large-scale education data sets and systems, other social science and health-related databases that can advance knowledge about education and learning are eligible for consideration.

Many national data resources, including important longitudinal data sets, have been developed or funded by NCES, NSF, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Institutes of Health, or other federal agencies. International datasets such as PISA, PIAAC, TIMMS, and others are supported. If international data sets are used, the study must include U.S. education.

NCES has enhanced and improved SLDS through grants to nearly every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and America Samoa. This federal investment has produced state-level data from pre-K to grade 12, through higher education, and into the workforce. Many SLDS are available for analysis and can be used to address salient issues in education research or linked with other data sets.

Data Set Access The data set(s) of interest must be available for analysis at the time of application. Use of public or restricted-data files is permissible. Prior to receiving funding, students must provide documentation that they have permission to use the data for the research project. In many cases, graduate students will gain access to restricted files through a faculty member or senior scholar.

Data Sharing All data or data-related products produced under the AERA Grants Program must be shared and made available consonant with ethical standards for the conduct of research. Grantees are expected to place article-related data, [1] codebook or coding procedures, algorithms, code, and so forth in an accessible archive at the time of publication. Also, at a reasonable time after completion of the dissertation research, all data or data-related products must be archived at the AERA-ICPSR Data Sharing Repository supported by NSF and located at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan. AERA provides guidance to facilitate the data sharing and archiving process.

Dissertation Grant Award

Award Component 1, $27,500 Stipend . AERA will award each grantee up to a $27,500 stipend to study education, teaching, learning, or other education research topics using one or multiple large-scale databases. The funds can be used for research-related expenses such as tuition, living expenses, travel to secure data enclaves or scholarly conferences, books, computer equipment, and other expenses directly related to conducting this research. As part of the proposal, applicants provide a budget that outlines anticipated research-related expenses. AERA encourages cost sharing from universities in the form of tuition assistance, office space, university fees, and other expenses. In accordance with AERA's agreement with NSF, institutions cannot charge overhead or indirect costs to administer the grant funds. In addition to the funding, grantees will be paired with a Governing Board member who will serve as a resource and provide advice and feedback to grantees and monitor grantees’ progress.

Award Component 2, AERA Research Conference. Grantees will participate in an AERA research conference held in Washington, DC. During this 2-day conference grantees will participate in seminar-type sessions on substantive, methodological, and professional issues. Also, they will have the opportunity to network and interact with the Grants Program Governing Board, senior scholars and researchers, other graduate students who use large-scale datasets in their research, and representatives from key federal agencies such as the National Center for Educational Statistics, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education. The award will cover all travel and lodging expenses for grantees to participate in the conference.

Award Component 3, AERA Annual Meeting Capstone Research Institute. Each spring AERA holds its Annual Meeting which brings together over 15,000 researchers, scholars, and policy leaders to present their research, share knowledge, and build research capacity through over 2,000 substantive sessions. Grantees will take a data analysis or appropriate methods course while attending the AERA Annual Meeting. The grantees will present their research in an invited poster session along with other graduate students who received dissertation support from AERA and other prestigious fellowship programs. Finally, grantees will participate in a Capstone conference directly after the Annual Meeting that will address issues such as building a research agenda, searching for a faculty appointment, and publishing research. Grantees must include travel and lodging expenses to the Annual Meeting in their budget.

Informational Webinar Applicants are encouraged to watch the informational webinar to learn more about the AERA Grants Program and discuss the application process..

Project Dates AERA is flexible on research project start dates, depending on what is best for the applicant. The earliest date a grant may start is approximately three months following the application deadline. Alternatively, an award start date several months or more after that may be requested.

Funding Restrictions Dissertation Grantees may not accept concurrent grant or fellowship awards from another agency, foundation, institution or the like for the same dissertation project that is funded by the AERA Grants Program. If the awardee is offered more than one major grant or fellowship for the same project for the same time period, in order to accept the AERA Grants Program Dissertation Grant, the other award(s) must be declined. Awardees may accept Research Assistant or Teaching Assistant appointments at their doctoral institutions and may have additional employment.

If the applicant is employed by a contractor of NCES, NSF, other federal agency, state agency, or other entity that provides the dataset proposed for the project, the dissertation research must not be considered part of the applicant's work responsibilities. An additional letter from the applicant's employer is required as part of the application submission, stating that the dissertation project is separate from the applicant's job duties. This letter must be sent electronically by the deadline to [email protected] .

Evaluation Criteria Evaluation criteria include the significance of the research question, the conceptual clarity and potential contribution of the proposal, the relevance to an important STEM education policy issue, the strength of the methodological model and proposed statistical analysis, and the applicant’s relevant research and academic experience. Additionally, the review criteria include the following: What is already known on the issue? How might this project inform STEM education policy? How does the methodology relate specifically to the research question? Does the applicant know the data set? Does the analytic plan fit the question and the data? How does this project promote equity in STEM education and learning? Is the applicant qualified to carry out the proposed study? Reviewers will be members of the AERA Grants Program Governing Board. Due to the large volume of applications received, the AERA Grants Program is unable to provide individual feedback on unfunded proposals.

Reporting Requirements Dissertation Grantees will be required to submit a brief (3-6 pages) progress report midway through the grant period. A final report will be submitted at the end of the grant period. The final report consists of an extended dissertation abstract (3-6 pages), a statement of research dissemination and communication activities and plans (1-3 pages), and the complete approved dissertation. It should be submitted electronically to [email protected] . All reporting requirements and deadlines are outlined in the award letter.

Funding Disbursement Funding will be linked to the approval of the progress report and final report. Grantees will receive one-half of the total award at the beginning of the grant period, one-quarter upon approval of the progress report, and one-quarter upon approval of the final report. Grants are awarded through the grantee’s institution. In accordance with AERA's agreement with NSF, institutions cannot charge overhead or indirect costs to administer the grant funds.

Considerations in the Development of the Proposal Applicants are strongly encouraged to read Estimating Causal Effects: Using Experimental and Observational Designs , by Barbara Schneider, Martin Carnoy, Jeremy Kilpatrick, William H. Schmidt, and Richard J. Shavelson prior to submitting a dissertation grant proposal. Selection bias is a recurring issue during the review process and should be addressed in the proposal.

Applicants should choose research topics that can be supported by the samples and variables contained in the proposed data set(s). Applicants should also be familiar with the User Guides and/or Manuals (e.g., use of design weights and design effects) of the specific data sets. Applicants should be familiar with statistical methods and available computer programs that allow for sophisticated analyses of the selected data.

Applicants should explicitly address the curricular content when it applies. Applicants are encouraged to capitalize on the capacity of large-scale data sets to examine diverse populations, including racial, ethnic, social class, and gender groups. Studies are encouraged that promote or inform diversity, equity, and inclusion for underrepresented population as well as across STEM topics. The proposed topic must have education policy relevance, and the models to be tested must include predictor variables that are manipulable (e.g., course work in mathematics, instructional practices used by teachers, parental involvement). Studies focusing on STEM education policy are strongly encouraged. Studies that model achievement test data should clearly define the achievement construct and identify the kinds of items to be used to operationalize the topic of interest. Also, when planning to use existing sub-scales, the applicant should describe why these sub-scales are appropriate and how they will be applied. Existing sub-scales provided by NCES or other agencies may not be appropriate for the proposed construct.

Dissertation Grant Application Guidelines AERA Grants Program

Application Deadline All applications for the AERA Grants Program must be completed using the AERA online application portal by 11:59pm Pacific time on May 30, 2024 . An applicant may submit only one proposal to the AERA Grants Program for review at any one time. Due to the large volume of applications received, the AERA Program is unable to provide individual feedback on unfunded proposals.

Submission Information Please enter the background information requested in the proposal submission portal. This includes the applicant’s contact and background demographic information. Also, enter the proposal title, amount of funding requested, and the start and end dates of the project.

Dataset(s) used: Name data set(s) used (e.g., ECLS­K, ELS:2002, IPEDS, CCD, AddHealth, SLDS-State, PISA, and so forth). Proposals must include the analysis of at least one large-scale federal, international, or state administrative data system.

Dissertation abstract Enter the abstract of your proposed research project (250 words maximum).

Contribution to the field Briefly describe the potential contributions this research will make to the field of education (250 words maximum). You may cut and paste or type into the text box.

• Statement of how this research advances the current state of knowledge in the field, substantively and/or methodologically
• Theoretical or conceptual framework for the research
• Brief review of relevant research/policy literature
• Research questions, hypotheses to be tested
• Description of methodology including the data set(s) and justification for selecting data file to address research question; any additional or supplemental data sample (e.g., groups used, exclusions to sample, and estimated sample sizes); rationale for variables used; and specification and clarification of variables and analytic techniques
• Data analysis plan and/or statistical model or formulas, appropriately defined
• Brief dissemination plan for this research including proposed conferences to present the findings and potential scholarly journals to publish the research  
• Variables list: A categorized list of the variables from the NCES, NSF, or other data set(s) that will be used in this research project. (2 single-spaced pages maximum)  
• References cited (not part of page limit)  
• Budget . Awards for Dissertation Grants are up to $27,500 for 1­year projects. The budget must include funds to attend the AERA Annual Meeting. The funds can be used for research-related expenses such as tuition, living expenses, travel to secure data enclaves or scholarly conferences, books, computer equipment, and other expenses directly related to conducting this research. AERA encourages cost sharing from universities in the form of tuition assistance, office space, university fees, and other expenses. In accordance with AERA's agreement with NSF, institutions cannot charge overhead or indirect costs to administer the grant funds. There is no specific template for the budget. It may be a simple 2­column format or a more complex spreadsheet. (no page limit)  
• Research and academic employment history
• Relevant graduate courses in statistics and methodology
• Relevant publications and presentations
• Relevant professional affiliations and/or memberships

Please combine items 1-5 as one PDF document and upload on online application.

Letter(s) of support: The letter(s) must be sent separately, by the faculty member. One substantive letter of support is required from the applicant's primary faculty dissertation advisor that includes an indication of the applicant's current progress toward the degree and expected date of completion, and of the student's potential for success in his or her anticipated career path.

If the applicant is from a discipline other than education, a second letter of support from a faculty advisor who has an education research background is also required if the primary faculty advisory does not specialize in education research. Although this second letter should focus mainly on the applicant's qualifications, research experience, and potential, it should also include a brief paragraph on the advisor's own education research experience.

Further Questions Contact George L. Wimberly, Co-Principal Investigator, AERA Grants Program ( [email protected]) or 202-238-3200 if you have questions regarding the application or submission process. NOTE: All awards are contingent upon AERA's receiving continued federal funding.

Visit the AERA Grants Program Website at http://www.aera.net/grantsprogram .

[1] Awardees with access to data under restricted access provisions are expected to archive a detailed specification of the data set so that others can request the same data under the same or similar restricted conditions. 

• Events Calendar
• Featured Story

Elianny Edwards Named Recipient of 2023 AERA Outstanding Dissertation Award in Field of School Climate

Elianny C. Edwards, a 2022 doctoral graduate of the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies has been named the recipient of the American Educational Research Association 2023 Outstanding Dissertation Award in the Field of School Climate.

“This award from AERA means so much to me -- not only because of the work that went into this project but because of the ideas it affirms. I am incredibly passionate about racial equity in education and excited to continue working toward supporting educators and schools and Black youth and families,” said Edwards. “This work is important, it matters, especially at a time when curriculum bans, racial injustice, political divides, and structural inequality significantly threaten the safety of Black youth in schools. We need discourse around these topics as just that -- issues of safety and wellness. I'm grateful to be able to do this work, and to be recognized by AERA and leading experts in the field is incredible and a huge honor.”

Edwards’ dissertation, “Centering Racism to Examine School Safety for Black High School Students,” challenges the here-to-fore colorblind discourse of school climate and safety to address institutional racism in schools as a threat to Black youth. In her research, Edwards used a traditional single-item measure of school safety to highlight racial-ethnic disparities among ninth-grade high school youths across California. Her work then applies a racial lens to assessing Black youths’ feelings of school safety, demonstrating how they can provide novel and valuable insight into relevant factors that influence the safety of Black youth in school — factors that would otherwise go unnoticed via traditional colorblind measures of school safety. 

Edwards’ research showed that Black ninth-grade students felt significantly less safe at school than their white peers. Further, the effect of race-ethnicity on feelings of school safety was significantly moderated by sex, violent victimization, and academic motivation. The research also showed that Black student safety significantly predicted Black youths’ feelings of school safety. Racial-cultural, academic, and physical-environmental safety were stronger predictors of caring relationships, academic outcomes and goals and aspirations for Black youth than the single-item measure of school safety.  

Edwards contends that the findings from her dissertation emphasize a need for more comprehensive, multidimensional frameworks and instruments for assessing the safety of Black youth in schools, writing,  

“Promoting the safety of Black youth is about more than ensuring they are protected from external physical harm. It requires nurturing an inclusive school environment and community that promotes equitable outcomes and allows Black students to be empowered and engaged participants.” 

"In her dissertation, Elianny studied how perceived school safety impacts Black students in public middle schools and high schools.  She knows from her educational background and her experiences as a teacher how important feeling safe is for academic success," says Sandra  Graham, Distinguished Professor and UC Presidential Chair in Education and Diversity in the UCLA Department of Education, and chair of Edwards’ dissertation committee.  "The innovativeness and theoretical richness of Elianny’s thinking about safety in schools is quite remarkable for an early career educational psychologist and I anticipate a potential impact on the larger field of school climate research. She is an excellent emerging scholar who shows great promise.”

Edwards is currently a visiting assistant professor at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College in Massachusetts.

She   received   a   doctoral degree from the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies in June 2022. Edwards’ research is centered at the intersection of education, psychology, and human development. Her research interests include racial equity in K-12 education, school climate, and safety, anti-blackness in schools, and the role of race, gender, social class and culture on teaching among other related topics.  While at UCLA she was the lead author of a research brief,  Keeping Students Safe in Los Angeles , examining student safety and school policing in the Los Angeles Unified School District.  She was also the recipient of the UCLA Academic Senate 2022 Graduate Student Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award.

• AERA Outstanding Dissertation Award
• Elianny Edwards
• Knowledge that Matters
• Sandra Graham

Alumnus Ainsley Rudolfo Recognized with AERA’s Prestigious 2023 Kottkamp Dissertation of the Year Award

“For me, this award is really a testament to the exceptional quality of the doctor of education (Ed.D.) program at Fordham’s Graduate School of Education (GSE),” stated Ainsley Rudolfo, Ed.D., recipient of the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) 2023 Kottkamp Dissertation of the Year Award. “The GSE faculty is in touch with the needs of practitioners; it’s a place where you earn a doctoral degree that truly is applicable to your everyday work in education. The GSE is doing something right.”

A member of the first cohort in GSE’s redesigned doctor of education program, Rudolfo is the 2 nd student in the cohort to receive high-level recognition for his dissertation. Rosalyn Barnes, Ed.D., one of his first cohort colleagues, was awarded the national 2021 Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate Dissertation in Practice of the Year Award . Each year, AERA’S Learning and Teaching in Educational Leadership Special Interest Group (LTEL SIG) also selects a recipient for the Kottkamp Dissertation of the Year Award , recognizing a recent doctoral graduate and their dissertation advisor for outstanding research, evaluation, or scholarship that aligns with the LTEL SIG goals, mission, and purpose research. The award presentation will take place April 13, 2023, during the annual AERA meeting in Chicago.

“I submitted Ainsley’s dissertation for the Kottkamp award because his work demonstrates the critical need to be in touch with the needs of practitioners,” said Educational Leadership, Administration, and Policy (ELAP) Division chair and professor Margaret Terry Orr, Ph.D., who served as Rudolfo’s dissertation mentor. “He embraces the value of using improvement science, putting it into practice for school leaders, and ultimately making a real difference for students in the classroom. I knew from working with him that Ainsley is bringing significant value to our profession.”

Rudolfo’s dissertation, “Assessing The Effectiveness of Networked Improvement Communities to Advance Improvement Science-Continuous Improvement Through Inquiry-Based Learning” centers on leadership development and supporting educational leaders by teaching them how to use the principles of improvement science and then transfer that knowledge to teachers to solve problems in the classroom. Working with Orr, the project started in person, then switched to online due to the pandemic. Study participants met every other week to go through learning modules and developed strategies and practices, then took them back to their schools to implement changes and test solutions, constantly tweaking the approach and then measuring learning outcomes at the end.

“Dr. Terry Orr is so passionate about improvement science and before she even knew I wanted her as my mentor, I considered her my mentor,” emphasized Rudolfo. “I just wanted to be like her – and I came to Fordham University because the Ed.D. program she leads concentrates on improvement science. It was then that I decided to do an improvement science dissertation.” He adds, “Another reason why I came to Fordham University is that it’s NYC-centric and supports NYC schools. I am so excited about the value of improvement science and its applications to real-world instructional practice; the opportunity to do this work with Professor Orr has been the icing on the cake.”

Rudolfo was initially trained in clinical social work with an emphasis on child welfare and adolescent mental health, and primarily worked with children who were in foster care or children and adolescents diagnosed with a mental health disorder. After 9/11, as an employee of the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, he was responsible for providing targeted support to administrators and students in New York City public schools who were impacted by the events of 9/11, particularly those dealing with the grief and trauma associated with losing a parent or loved one to the terror attacks. Rudolfo acknowledged that many past colleagues and supervisors played a role in his journey to Fordham GSE and eventual enrollment in its doctoral program.  He specifically cited his first mentor, Alma Carten, Ph.D., professor of social welfare policy (retired) and child welfare expert at his alma mater, the Silver School of Social Work at New York University, as the first person to seriously encourage him to pursue a doctorate. That mentorship was followed by strong encouragement from Dorita Gibson, Ed.D., the first deputy chancellor (retired) and his past supervisor at the NYC Department of Education, who was also instrumental in his decision to enter Fordham University.

It was appealing to combine his clinical social work training with education, Rudolfo said. As he put it, “Another reason I loved coming to Fordham was that I was encouraged to draw upon my previous social work experience; Professor Orr recognized and valued that I had a unique perspective as an educational leader because I am good at getting people to trust me and the process.” Rudolfo was joined in his Ed.D. program cohort by other students from a broad range of educational disciplines, including teachers, principals, charter-school administrators, and district-level administrators, including the former chancellor of NYC public schools, Meisha Porter, Ed.D.

Now that the Ed.D. program and his time learning at Fordham’s GSE has helped Rudolfo hone his leadership skills and become more comfortable overall as a leader, he is eager to continue finding solutions to real-world problems of practice. He wants to dig even deeper into improvement science and share it with more of his colleagues and educators, a process that “starts with one class, one grade, one school, one district.”

Rudolfo concluded, “This award was a total surprise and is very gratifying. I am humbled to be recognized.” Receiving the award is especially meaningful because at one point during the program, Rudolfo doubted he would finish it. Emphasizing the support he received at that point, he shared that “the faculty and members of his dissertation committee, particularly Professors Orr and Huang really held me up and held my hand. I felt a palpable connection with Professor Orr, my other professors, and my cohort colleagues. I just knew the professors at Fordham cared about me and my success, they cared about all of us and wanted us to succeed and finish our dissertations.”

More About the Robert Kottkamp Outstanding Dissertation Award 

The Robert Kottkamp Outstanding Dissertation Award   recognizes a recent doctoral graduate as well as her or his dissertation advisor for research, evaluation, or scholarship that aligns with the LTEL SIG goals, mission, and purpose research. The dissertation, successfully defended during the previous calendar year, may investigate educational leadership preparation and development programs, assess the impact of preparation on leadership practice, examine policy issues related to state or national leadership standards assessment and credentialing, or contribute through disciplined inquiry to the knowledge base about learning and teaching in educational leadership. The dissertation award also recognizes the contributions by former SIG Chair Robert Kottkamp (emeritus professor at Hofstra University) and co-founder of the UCEA/LTEL SIG Taskforce on Evaluating Leadership Preparation Programs.

Related Posts

Bronx Educational Leaders Join Fordham GSE Faculty to Celebrate Bronx-EdD Program Advancing Community-Based Solutions

Fordham GSE, The Abyssinian Baptist Church Commence Lecture Series Honoring Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III

Fordham GSE Hosts New York State Education Department Conference on Bilingual Education

Comments are closed.

Ty McNamee is Winner of the AERA Division J Dissertation of the Year Award

Dr. ty mcnamee (edd. ’22) is the winner of the 2023-2024 american educational research association (aera) division j dissertation of the year award.

Congratulations to Dr. Ty McNamee (EdD. ’22)!  He is the winner of the 2023-2024 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division J Dissertation of the Year Award. His dissertation is titled  The Cultural Transition Into and Navigation of Higher Education for Rural Students from Poor and Working-class Backgrounds .

The Award Committee Chair stated:

“Dr. McNamee’s dissertation work stood out from the other nominations by the quality and depth of his writing, as well as the originality and unique contribution to the field of higher education.” “Very few studies have critically evaluated rural students transition from poor and working-class backgrounds into college,” added Dr. Chan, who directs the master’s degree in higher education administration program at Lee. “Dr. McNamee’s qualitative work inspires us as teacher-scholars and practitioners to implement policies, procedures and practices that promote equality, diversity, and inclusion for minoritized and marginalized groups in postsecondary education.”

Ty is currently an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Mississippi.

Programs: Higher and Postsecondary Education

Published Monday, Feb 5, 2024

Program Director : Professor Noah D. Drezner

Teachers College, Columbia University 206 Zankel

Phone: 212-678-3750 Fax: 212-678-3743

Email: highered@tc.edu

Research presented at 2023 National AERA Conference

You are here: american university school of education news & events research presented at 2023 aera conference.

Back to top

SOE Presentations and Award at 2023 National AERA Meeting SOE Faculty and Alumni win awards and presented at annual meeting.

American University's School of Education had significant representation at the American Educational Research Association's (AERA) 2023 Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Educational research is the cornerstone of making informed change in education, and AU's SOE was well represetnted with many faculty and alumni presenters throughout the four-day conference. The theme this year was "Consequential Educational Research."

Awards and presentations involving SOE-related staff and alumni included:

Recent Alumni Wins Prestigious Award

Outstanding dissertation award bestowed on edd graduate.

Presentations Included:

• Dr. Emily Grossnickle Peterson   presented  Revisiting Teacher Candidates' Beliefs in the Learning Styles Neuromyth
• Dr. Asia S. Thomas Uzomba presented  Daughters of Cooper: The Ancestral Legacy of Black Women Teachers

Dr. Andrea Guiden Pittman presented  Racialized Experiences of Black Applicants in the Virginia Teacher Labor Market

Dr. William Thomas presented a session titled: Black and Male: Intersectionality in Teaching and Learning  and on a roundtable presentation  Perceptions of Black Male Teachers in Boundary-Heightening Environments: Challenging the Black Boy Savior Stereotype

Dr. Sarah Irvine Belson , Danielle Gervais Sodani , Rida Hameed (PhD in Economics student at AU), Katharine Pace Miles, Dr. Alida Anderson , Madelyn Smith (MEd student), Dr. Traci Dennis, Dr. Ocheze Joseph , and Dr. Carolyn Parker presented  Consequential High Intensity Tutoring: Developing Literary Identities Within Foundational Reading Intervention Through Culturally Responsive Practice

Anna Kushner, Dr. Brett G. Grant, Cassandra Edwards, Beatrice Moyers, Ann LoBue , and Dr. Sonya Douglass presented  Division L- Educational Policies and Politics/Division L-Section 1: Governance, Politics, and Intergovernmental Relations  with the paper: Organizing For Racial Equity: Defining and Operationalizing Racial Equity in K-12

Dr. Samantha Cohen   was the discussant at  Integrating Improvement Science into Leadership Programs: Opportunities, Challenges, and Adaptations

Dr. Amaarah N. DeCuir presented  Black Muslim Student Voices of Intersectionality in the event Don't Clip My Wings Before I Learn to Fly: The Stories and Experiences of Black Youth in K–12 Settings

Dr. Jisun Jeong presented  Trajectory of Social and Emotional Learning Policy Making in Lebanon Since the Syrian Refugee Influx

Dr. Emily Grossnickle Peterson   presented  Sparking Middle School Students' Curiosity to Explain Scientific Phenomena: A Proposed Investigation of Visual Processes (in the poster session: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work)

Dr. Toks S. Fashola presented  Quantitative Research Shapes Educational Policy and Practice: Are You In?

Dr. Golnar Abedin and  Dr. Deepa Srikantaiah presented  Addressing Minoritized Populations in Holistic Education

Dr. Andrea Guiden Pittman  presented  In Search of “the RIGHT type”: The Convergence of Race and Teacher Quality in D.C. Public Schools, 1952-1964

Dr. David J. Weerts held a roundtable paper presentation for the paper, Tolerance, Humility, and Educational Attainment: Does College Attendance Build Capacity for Confident Pluralism?  The paper was written by Weerts, Dr. Alberto F. Cabrera , and Kristin Van Dorn .

About AERA:

The AERA Annual Meeting is the largest gathering of scholars in the field of education research, with typically 13,000 of its 24,000 members in attendance. It is an event to showcase groundbreaking, innovative studies in a diverse array of areas: from early education through higher education, from digital learning to second language literacy. Ideas and data are presented and discussed that will shape tomorrow’s education practices and policies, and where to connect with leading thinkers from the U.S. and around the world.

AERA's Virtual Annual Meeting takes place May 4-5

• Dr. Amaarah N. DeCuir  chairs the virtual symposium Toward Fuller Expressions of Knowledge, Being, and Truth in Rethinking Islamic Education on Friday, May 5 at 9:45—11:15 a.m. CT in the SIG Virtual Rooms, Religion and Education SIG Virtual Session Room

Dr. Mariana León and Dr. Nadia De Leon Porter joined Dean Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy and other faculty for dinner to discuss the education system in Panama, and AU's Panama Teach initiative.

SOE faculty and alumni met at a networking reception at The Hampton Social in Chicago.

Dr. Amaarah DeCuir presented  Black Muslim Student Voices of Intersectionality  in the event Don't Clip My Wings Before I Learn to Fly: The Stories and Experiences of Black Youth in K–12 Settings

Dr. Toks S. Fashola  presented  Quantitative Research Shapes Educational Policy and Practice: Are You In?

Dr. William Thomas  presented a session titled:  Black and Male: Intersectionality in Teaching and Learning  and on a roundtable presentation  Perceptions of Black Male Teachers in Boundary-Heightening Environments: Challenging the Black Boy Savior Stereotype

Jump to navigation

AERA Division G: (Social Context of Education) 2023 Dissertation Award Recipient

Please join the University of Arizona College of Education in congratulating Educational Policy Studies and Practice, Assistant Professor, Dr. Dawn Demps in being selected as a recipient of the AERA Division G:(Social Context of Education) 2023 Dissertation Award!

Dr. Demps was also recently featured in University of Michigan-Flint Victors in Grad School podcast, she discussed her own educational journey leading from an untraditional path to getting her Bachelors degree, being a community activist and then continuing her education to getting her Doctorate and now teaching others.

PODCAST: https://bit.ly/DawnDempspodcast

• News: Educational Policy Studies & Practice
• News: Educational Leadership & Policy

Share on Social Media

• GGSE Resources

News & Press

Mayra Puente wins AERA dissertation award

The Rural Education Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) has named Dr. Mayra Puente of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School its 2023 Dissertation Award winner. Puente’s dissertation, written to complete her Ph.D. work at UC San Diego, is titled Ground-Truthing en el Valle de San Joaquín: A Mixed Methods Study on Rural Latinx Spatiality and College (In)Opportunity .

The award will be presented at the AERA Annual Meeting in Chicago in April. The Rural Education Special Interest Group promotes scholarly conversation about the lives of rural people, places and their schools through research and provides a forum for dissemination of this research.

Mayra Puente is an Assistant Professor of higher education in the Department of Education . She earned her Ph.D. in education at UC San Diego with generous support from the Ford Foundation Fellowship. She received her B.A. in political science with a concentration in race, ethnicity, and politics and double minored in education studies and Chicana/o studies at UCLA. The Dell Scholars Program and McNair Scholars Research Program supported her undergraduate education.

Dr. Puente’s various degrees and concentrations have shaped her transdisciplinary approach to higher education research. She is particularly concerned with college access, choice, transition, retention, and success issues for rural Latinx students and other institutionally marginalized student groups and communities. Dr. Puente draws on frameworks like Critical Race Theory, Latino Critical Race Theory, Critical Race Spatial Analysis, and Chicana Feminisms to address these pressing educational issues and enact social justice. She recently co-developed a Platicando y Mapeando methodology in educational research, which combines her interests and expertise in critical raced gendered epistemologies, Chicana feminist methodologies, and geographic information systems (GIS). This methodology will be published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

Dr. Puente’s passion for higher education access and equity is driven by the educational barriers she faced as a first-generation college student from a Mexican im/migrant farm working background and by her professional experiences as a higher education advocate in California’s San Joaquin Valley for rural Latinx students and families. As a professor at UCSB, Dr. Puente intends to extend her research and service to California’s Central Coast. She hopes to learn about the higher education (in)opportunities of institutionally marginalized students and communities from this region.

AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) Council in 1991 established the AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research to enhance the racial and ethnic diversity of faculty, scholars, and researchers who study topics in education research. This fellowship is targeted for members of racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in higher education (e.g., African Americans, Alaskan Natives, American Indians, Asian Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders).

The Fellowship Program aims to provide support for doctoral dissertation research, to advance education research by outstanding minority graduate students, and to enhance these students’ competitiveness for academic appointments at major research universities. It supports fellows conducting education research and provides mentoring, capacity building activities, and guidance toward the completion of their doctoral studies. 

The Program Fellows have produced rigorous research that is published in peer reviewed journals, books, and edited volumes. Many of the recent Program Fellows are in postdoctoral positions and assistant professor positions at Research I institutions including Georgia State University, Harvard University, University of Georgia, the University of Southern California, and Southern Methodist University. Other fellows have careers in applied research and policy positions at various organizations.

Deadline: Nov. 1, 2023

The AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship Program in Education Research seeks proposals from advanced graduate students who are from racial and ethnic groups that are underrepresented in higher education. The Fellowship Program encourages studies that examine a wide range of education research topics such as students’ school experiences, STEM education and learning, ethnic studies/curriculum; tracking; measurement of achievement and opportunity gaps; English language learners; or bullying and restorative justice. These studies may focus on students, teachers, schools, and/or educational contexts across multiple educational stages including early childhood education and development, k-12 education, postsecondary education, and the workforce. Studies should use rigorous scientific research methods within quantitative, qualitative, archival, and/or mixed method techniques. Studies that examine issues of specific racial and ethnic groups, social classes, genders, or persons with disabilities are encouraged and supported by the Fellowship Program.

The AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research is open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents who are members of racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in higher education (e.g., African Americans, Alaskan Natives, American Indians, Asian Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders). Applicants can come from graduate programs and departments in education research, the humanities, or social or behavioral science disciplinary or interdisciplinary fields, such as economics, history, political science, psychology, public policy, or sociology. Eligible graduate students will be at the writing stage of their dissertation by the beginning of the fellowship. 

Fellows are required to provide proof of advancement to candidacy at the beginning of the award period. Applicants must work full-time on their dissertations and course requirements. 

Award Component 1, $25,000 Stipend . AERA awards each Fellow up to a $25,000 stipend to study education, teaching, learning, or other education research topic. The fellowship funds can be used for tuition and/or institution fees, books, living expenses, equipment, travel, supplies, software, and other expenses that are directly related to conducting this research. Fellows must include travel and lodging expenses to the Annual Meeting in their budget. AERA encourages cost sharing from universities in the form of tuition assistance, office space, university fees, and other expenses. Institutions cannot charge overhead or indirect costs to administer the fellowship funds.

Award Component 2, Present Research at Invited AERA Poster Session . Fellows present their research in an invited poster session during the 2025  AERA Annual Meeting. This poster session is a hallmark of the AERA professional development program and features promising research from graduate students who are supported by AERA funded programs. This is an excellent opportunity to showcase the developing research from the next generation of scholars and for the Fellows to receive feedback from senior scholars, education school deans, foundation officers, and others across the education research community.

Award Component 3, AERA Minority Fellows Mentoring and Career Development Workshop . During the 2025 AERA Annual Meeting, Fellows participate in a mentoring and career development workshop with current and former members of the AERA Minority Selection Committee and other senior scholars. The workshop focuses on topics such as making the transition from graduate school to a postdoctoral program, faculty position, or a career in applied research.

• Graduate School of Education
• Department of Learning and Instruction
• UB Directory
• Center for K–12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education >
• News and Media >
• Graduate School of Education scholars to share research at 2024 AERA conference

Published April 2, 2024

BY NICOLE MEHLMAN-DAVIDOW AND SARA DEMBSKI

Graduate school of education scholars to share research at aera conference.

More than 70 faculty, staff, alumni and student scholars from across the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education will present 89 unique sessions at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), being held in person in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from April 11–14.

“ Dismantling Racial Injustice and Constructing Educational Possibilities: A Call to Action ,” is the theme of this year’s conference.

“I look forward to participating in the upcoming conference. AERA is the preeminent gathering of education researchers and a wonderful place to showcase scholarly research,” said Suzanne Rosenblith, PhD , Graduate School of Education dean.

Rosenblith will be the chair of a presentation titled, “Answerability, Urgency, and Joy: Revitalizing and Reinvigorating Teacher Education Through Residency,” which explores various facets of teacher residency, making the case that is possible to create a university-based, student, school and community-focused teacher preparation program that is clinically intensive, academically rigorous, responsive to the economic concerns of students and justice and equity-oriented.

Other GSE scholars participating in the conference include:

• Jasmine Alvarado, PhD , will present a symposium called “Imagining Futurities in Bi/multilingual Education through Counterstories from Racialized and Minoritized Parents.”
• Stephen Santa-Ramirez, PhD , will bring his expertise to a paper session titled “College Journeys of Unique Student Populations” with his work, “What Happens Post-College? Narratives of Recently Graduated Undocumented Student.”
• Paris Wicker, PhD , will be a panelist during the fireside chat session titled, “Let No Job Market Put Asunder: The Inter/Intrapersonal Journeys of Scholars Navigating the Academy.”
• During the paper session titled “Responding to Crises: Education in the Wake of COVID-19,” GSE professors Jaekyung Lee, PhD , Young S. Seo, PhD and Myles Faith, PhD , will bring their research “Whole-Child Development Losses and Inequalities during the Pandemic: Cross-state Analyses of Achievement and Well-being Trends.”

In addition to giving presentations, participating in poster sessions and contributing to roundtable discussions, GSE scholar Jasmine Alvarado was also be honored for her contributions to the field of education.

Alvarado was awarded second place for the AERA Bilingual Research Issues Outstanding Dissertation Award. This is her third AERA award, along with 2023’s AERA dissertation awards from the Family, School and Community Partnerships SIG and from the Latinx Research Issues SIG. 

A host of GSE students are also scheduled to participate. Among them are:

• Leah Bartlo who will co-present research titled, “Using Teacher Performance Assessment to Dismantle Injustice and Construct Possibilities in Teacher Education.”
• Samantha R. Didrichsen will co-present a poster “The Role of Racial Congruence in Early Educator-Child Linguistic Interactions: Implications for African American Learners.”
• Nicholas A. Emmanuele will co-present, “Reader and Disability Perceptions of Adolescents with Specific Learning Disabilities in Reading: A Mixed Study.”

AERA, a national research society founded in 1916, is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and evaluation and promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results.

The annual conference is one of the largest nationwide for education researchers. See a complete list of GSE presenters and presentations at ed.buffalo.edu/aera-2024 . 

Tuesday News Briefs feature the stories of the Graduate School of Education faculty, students and alumni who are engaged in their communities and making an impact through their hard work, dedication and research initiatives. If you have a story to share, please email us with the details for consideration as a future news feature.

Peabody faculty and alumna honored at AERA annual meeting

Media Inquiries

• 615-322-6397 Email

Latest Stories

• WATCH: FBI Director Christopher Wray gives keynote address at Vanderbilt’s Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats
• Vanderbilt University transitions benefits administration starting July 1
• Rites of Spring music festival is April 20

Apr 15, 2024, 9:56 AM

Following Ilana Horn ’s selectio n earlier this year as a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, she was inducted on Friday, April 12, at the AERA 2024 annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“At the heart of Lani’s work is a sincere desire to improve mathematics education for all students, especially for those historically marginalized by education systems. The AERA Fellowship reflects the impact of her work not only on the field of education research but on the instructional practices of countless educators. I congratulate her on this distinct and most deserved honor,” said Camilla Benbow , Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development.

Two additional faculty members and an alumna of Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development also received honors at AERA’s annual conference.

Bethany Rittle-Johnson , professor of psychology and the Anita S. and Antonio M. Gotto Chair in Child Development, won AERA’s 2024 Sylvia Scribner Award . Chezare Warren , associate professor of equity and inclusion in education policy, won the Charles DeGarmo Lecture Award from the Society of Professors of Education and gave the DeGarmo Lecture at the Society’s annual meeting during the AERA conference.

Alumna Mariah Deans Harmon , PhD’23, BS’12, assistant professor of teacher education at Pennsylvania State University, won the Outstanding Dissertation Award from AERA Division K: Teaching and Teacher Education for her dissertation, From Object to Subject: Exploring the Experiences and Developmental Needs of Black Women Pre-Service Teachers .

“Bethany, Chezare, and Mariah are exceptional leaders in education research and truly worthy of these honors. Bethany’s research empowers novel instructional methods for improving children’s mathematics knowledge, Chezare’s research advances our understanding of the conditions that enrich Black education, and Mariah’s dissertation challenges how policies have historically treated Black women educators and explores their unique learning needs as pre-service teachers,” Benbow said.

Sylvia Scribner Award

The Sylvia Scribner Award recognizes a scholar whose recent work—published within the last 10 years— significantly influences the field of learning and instruction. Sylvia Scribner studied issues within the fields of cognition, learning, and education, specifically the relationship between cognition and culture.

“I’m really honored to receive the Sylvia Scribner Award that honors Scribner’s legacy,” Rittle-Johnson said. “My own scholarship on the bi-directional and iterative development of conceptual and procedural knowledge illustrates how some theoretical debates can be resolved by integrating ideas, rather than putting them in competition with each other.”

Charles DeGarmo Lecture Award

According to the Society of Professors of Education , “the Charles DeGarmo Lecture is an annual statement on a problem or issue of special current concern to the education professoriate, offered by a prominent and distinguished figure in American education.” Charles DeGarmo was a professor of the science and art of education and the first president of the National Society of College Teachers of Education in 1902.

“I’m grateful to my colleagues for such generous recognition of my work and scholarly contribution. To be selected as this year’s DeGarmo Award winner in the long line of previous recipients including Linda Darling-Hammond, Sonia Nieto, Edmund Gordon, and Bettina Love to name a few, is a deeply humbling honor,” Warren said.

Outstanding Dissertation Award, AERA Division K: Teaching and Teacher Education

The Outstanding Dissertation Award “recognizes a dissertation of exemplary conceptual, methodological, analytical, and writing quality on a topic of key significance in teaching and teacher education,” AERA’s website says. This marks Harmon’s third outstanding dissertation award, having previously received the James D. Anderson Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the Robert F. Schuck Distinguished Dissertation in Teacher Education Award from the Association of Teacher Educators. Harmon earned her Ph.D. in Peabody’s Department of Teaching and Learning (DTL) .

“This recognition has encouraged me to continue working towards more inclusive and equitable teacher education practices, centering the needs of minoritized teacher candidates,” Harmon said. “I am so grateful to my DTL family, particularly my advisor, Lani Horn and my generous committee members, for pushing me to explore my ideas and supporting me throughout the dissertation process.”

Keep Reading

Horn named AERA Fellow

New Faculty: Daphne Penn, sociologist of education, joins Vanderbilt Peabody College

Peabody researchers receive funding to launch data science challenges to improve education

Explore story topics.

• Education and Psychology
• Bethany Rittle-Johnson
• Chezare Warren
• Department of Psychology and Human Development
• Department of Teaching and Learning
• Ideas In Action
• Ideas in Action Featured
• Peabody College
• peabody-home

Mayra Puente receives AERA award for 'Platicando y Mapeando' educational research methodology

Share this article

Mayra Puente, an assistant professor at the UC Santa Barbara Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, has received the AERA (American Educational Research Association) Division J Outstanding Publication Award for the article “Platicando y Mapeando: A Chicana/Latina Feminist GIS Methodology in Educational Research.” Published in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, the piece was co-authored with Verónica N. Vélez, a professor at Western Washington University Woodring College of Education.

Puente and Velez together developed the “Platicando y Mapeando” (talking and mapping) methodology in educational research, using Chicana/Latina feminist pláticas (conversations) methodology and geographic information systems (GIS) software and maps, along with U.S. Census quantitative secondary data to track the experiences of rural Latinx youth in pursuing higher education. 

From the “Platicando y Mapeando” methodology research, Puente wrote her dissertation to complete her Ph.D. in education at UC San Diego in 2022. Her dissertation, “Ground-Truthing en el Valle de San Joaquín: A Mixed Methods Study on Rural Latinx Spatiality and College (In)Opportunity,” earned two awards from AERA last year. In March 2023, she received the AERA Rural Education Special Interest Group (SIG) Dissertation Award, followed by the AERA Division G 2023 Dissertation Award in April. In addition, she was a semi-finalist in the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education and Educational Testing Service 2023 AAHHE & ETS Outstanding Dissertation Competition. 

“Ground-Truthing en el Valle de San Joaquín” examines the intersectional roles that Latinx identity, racialized rural space and college opportunities or lack of opportunities played in the college access and decision-making of rural Latinx youth from California’s San Joaquín Valley agricultural region. By mapping socio-spatial narratives of rural Latinx youth in Tulare County, Puente demonstrated barriers to higher education access and choice experienced by this student group, with implications for researchers, policymakers and practitioners invested in addressing these barriers.

Puente first joined the Gevirtz School in November 2022. Prior to her graduate studies at UC San Diego, she earned her B.A. in political science, with a concentration in race, ethnicity and politics from UCLA, where she also pursued minors in education studies and Chicana/o studies. 

Her passion for higher education access and equity for Latinx populations is driven by the educational barriers she faced as a first-generation college student from a Mexican immigrant farm-working family, and her higher education advocacy work for rural Latinx youth in the San Joaquin Valley. As a UCSB professor, Puente seeks to extend her research and service to California’s Central Coast, studying the higher education (in)opportunities of institutionally marginalized students and communities within the region.

Read more about Puente’s research and the “Platicando y Mapeando” research in the Gevirtz School’s LAUNCH magazine.

Maria Zate [email protected]

About UC Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Mayra Puente

What's Current

Jessica Stovall wins Outstanding Dissertation Award at AERA

The Department of African American Studies would like to congratulate our 2023-2024 Anna Julia Cooper Fellow, Jessica Lee Stovall, on receiving the Outstanding Dissertation Award at the Critical Educators for Social Justice business meeting last week at the AERA (American Education Research Association) conference in Philadelphia.

Stovall also participated in the Roundtable discussion: “A Choreography of Difference: Exploring the Racial Choreographies of Un/Scripting Unapologetic Blackness in Education” and presented a paper at an invited presidential session called “Choreographies of Gender: Disrupting Anti-Blackness and Its Others Through a Queer Black Male Perspective”.

Education researchers recognized at 2024 AERA meeting

More than 140 researchers from MLFTC and the wider ASU community participated in the American Educational Research Association meeting April 1 1–14 in Philadelphia. The annual event is the world's largest gathering of education researchers and a showcase for groundbreaking, innovative studies in an array of areas. The event also provided an opportunity to recognize the impact of researchers in their field of study, and s pecial recognitions went to five MLFTC-affiliated individuals.

Jill Koyama , a professor and the vice dean for educational leadership and innovation, received the AERA Division G (Social Context of Education) Mentoring Award (2024) . Koyama is a cultural anthropologist whose research and leadership are informed by her commitment to inclusive excellence. Koyama is Co-Editor-In-Chief of “ Anthropology and Education Quarterly ,” a peer-reviewed journal that draws on anthropological theories and methods to examine educational processes across cultures. Koyama is also a founding member of  MLFTC’s Learning Futures Collaboratives through LEARN — Learning and Educating Across Refugee/(Im)migrant Networks

Steve Graham was named an Outstanding Reviewer (2023) for his work on behalf of the AERA journal, “Review of Educational Research.” Graham, a Regents Professor and the Mary Ellen Warner Professor of Education, is a fellow of AERA and the International Academy for Learning Disabilities Research. His four-decade career has been devoted to studying how writing develops, how to teach it effectively and how it can be used to support reading and learning. His research, extensively published and referenced, has been funded or commissioned by national and international organizations such as the Institute of Educational Sciences and the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education.

Punya Mishra , whose award was previously announced , was inducted as a 2024 AERA Fellow . Mishra, a professor and the associate dean of scholarship and innovation, is internationally recognized for his work on the theoretical, cognitive and social aspects related to the design and use of educational technologies. Mishra’s research in the area of technology integration led to the development of the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework, also known as TPACK. He has become increasingly involved in research and initiatives that explore the role of generative artificial intelligence. Mishra’s work includes securing over $11 million in grants and editing five books and more than 200 published articles.

Racquel Armstrong received the Social Justice Dissertation Award from the AERA Leadership for Social Justice SIG (2024). Armstrong also received the AERA Division A (Administration, Organization and Leadership) Outstanding Dissertation Honorable Mention (2024). Armstrong is a former K-12 administrator with a specialization in culturally responsive school leadership and wellness, and sustainability of leaders. Armstrong is affiliated with MLFTC as a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow  through the ASU fellowship program that supports the career development of outstanding doctorate recipients.

Jacob Bunch (EdD: Educational Leadership and Innovation ’23) received a Qualitative Research SIG Outstanding Dissertation Award (2024) for “Assistive Technology Lifeworlds: Inclusive Qualitative Methodological Innovations for Diverse Bodyminds” (published in ProQuest and ASU Keep). Bunch is also the senior program coordinator for alternative format services in ASU’s Office of Student Accessibility and Inclusive Learning Services , and his educational journey is featured in a student life article: “ A ‘superhero’ to Sun Devils with disabilities .”

• News & Events

Scholars Head to Philly for AERA 2024

The world’s largest education research conference, organized around the theme “ Dismantling Racial Injustice and Constructing Educational Possibilities: A Call to Action , offers more than 2,500 sessions, including 38 presidential events, giving scholars a chance to discuss, debate, and network in a town known for Cheesesteaks and Brotherly Love.

Columbia University’s Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, a pioneering scholar and writer who coined the term “intersectionality” to describe the double bind of simultaneous racial and gender prejudice, will deliver the opening keynote on Thursday, April 11.

View all School of Education and Social Policy presenters and participants.

Other highlights:

• Jones Lecture: James Spillane, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Professor in Learning and Organizational Change, will deliver the Helen DeVitt Jones Lecture in Teacher Education. In his talk, “Re-Imagining Teacher Professional Learning” Spillane will explain why marshaling and mobilizing essential resources for teaching and teacher learning are a systemwide challenge. Saturday, April 13 at 2:30 p.m. at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Floor: Level 5, Salon D
• Don't Miss: Shirin Vossoughi is participating in a Presidential Session honoring the life and work of Mike Rose, a research professor at the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies who devoted his life to building a democratic education for all youth. Vossoughi is currently teaching a graduate class with 26 students across both human development and social policy and learning sciences based on his UCLA course. The session, on Friday, April 12 at 3:05 p.m., is titled "Scholarship That Befits a Democracy: Disrupting Educational Inequality Through the Scholarship of Mike Rose."
• Presidential Sessions: Megan Bang, professor of learning sciences, is a panelist in "Intersectional Organizing, Solidarity-Building, and Educational Justice: A Town Hall Conversation with Scholars and Community Organizers" on Friday, April 12 at 4:55 p.m. Carol Lee, professor emerita and president of the National Academy of Education, will be at “The 27th Conversations with Senior Scholars on Advancing Research and Professional Development Related to Black Education” on Saturday, April 13 at 3:05 p.m.
• New AERA fellows: Bang and Elizabeth Tipton, who holds a courtesy appointment in the School of Education and Social Policy, will be inducted as 2024 AERA Fellows during the annual meeting.
• Brayboy Joins AERA Board: Carlos Montezuma Professor and Dean Bryan Brayboy was elected to the American Educational Research Association's council and executive board. At AERA, he’ll be involved in discussions around opportunities for federal research funding, research-policy collaborations for climate education and findings from a study of Indigenous-language immersion schooling.
• Undergraduate presentation: Spencer Cook, who is studying social policy and legal studies, is presenting at the undergrad student education research training workshop. Theh paper, a case study on bridging research and practice in rural areas using a scientific learning community, stems from his work as a research assistant with the (Cynthia) Coburn Lab and as a summer fellow at the Institute for Policy Research. He’s also participating in the Undergraduate Poster Session. “ I can't think of a better capstone event for my academic journey here at Northwestern,” he said.
• Dissertation recognition: Angel Bohannon (PhD23) a research scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago, was runner-up for the 2023 LSI SIG Dissertation of the Year Award. She also coauthored “Hidden in Plain Sight: Theorizing Latent Use as a Form of Research Use” with Cynthia Coburn and James Spillane. It was published in the  American Educational Research Journal.
• Clark Graduate Seminar: Andrew Stein and Karla Thomas were selected for   the David L. Clark Graduate Seminar in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies at the annual meeting.
• Graduate students at AERA: Lara Altman, Jennifer Cowhy, Claire Mackevicius, Melanie Muskin, Andrew Stein and Karla Thomas from the Human Development and Social Policy program; Bradley Davey, Teyona James Harris, Charles Logan, Jessica Marshall, Miguel Angel Ovies-bocanegra, and Topham Taylor from the Learning Sciences program; Stephanie Jones, Khushbu Kshirsagar, Nicholas Lagrassa, and Natalie Melo from the Computer Science + Learning Sciences doctoral program.
• Alumni participants: Eleanor Anderson, University of Pittsburgh; Megan Bang, Northwestern; Sugat Dabholkar, Tufts University; Ravit Golan Duncan Rutgers; Cassandra Hart, University of California-Davis; Victor Lee Stanford University; Mollie McQuillan, University of Wisconsin Madison; Heather McCambly, University of Pittsburgh; Meixi, University of Minnesota; Julissa Muñiz, University of California Santa Cruz; Kalonji Nzinga, University of Colorado-Boulder; Nichole Pinkard, Northwestern; Aireale Joi Rodgers, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Abigail Stein, Carnegie Melon University; Carrie Tzou, University of Washington-Bothell; Elizabeth van Es, University of California, Irvine; Samantha Viano, George Mason University; and Cora Wigger, Elon University.
• Mingle with Colleagues! The SESP community AERA reception will be April 11 at 6:30 p.m. at The Morris. RSVP here.
• Philly Cheesesteak v. Chicago Hot Dog? Dean Brayboy hasn’t yet had a Chicago dog (!) so he is going with “ a Geno’s cheesesteak. “Only by omission,” he says diplomatically. “I’m cool with Pat’s (King of Steaks) cheesesteaks as well.”
• Spread the word on social. If you're still on X, tell us what you're learning at the conference. Use the hashtags  #AERA2024 and #SESPLove.

• Newsletters

Meet Our 2023 SIG Award Winners!

If you have any questions, please contact:  [email protected]

2023 Awards:

Distinguished Career-Diane Horm

Early Career Award-

Arya Ansari, The Ohio State University and Cassie Brownell, University of Toronto

Dissertation Award-

Crystasany Turner, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Gerilyn Slicker, University of Nevada-Las Vegas

Travel Award-

Chungsoo Na, Utah State University and Cara Kelly, University of Delaware

2022 Awards:

Distinguished Career-Rebecca Kantor

Early Career Award-Elizabeth Hadley, University of South Florida

Dissertation Award-Kevin Matthew Wong, Pepperdine University

Early Career Travel Grant-Kathryn Chapman, Michelle DeJohnette, Paul Kienlen, Jillian Lauer, Michelle Little, Soojin Park, Robin Sayers, Katie Sloan, Cynthia Wiltshire

Student Travel Grant-Melissa Bishop, Shayna Cook, Emily Mak, Annette Pic, Zhiling Shea, Wendy Wei

2021 Awards:

Distinguished Career-Jeffrey Trawick Smith

Early Career Award-Shinyoung Jeon, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa

Dissertation Award-Sherri Castle, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa

Early Career Covid Relief Grant-Felicia Black, Kathryn Chapman, La Tricia Clark, Nneka Ibekwe-Okafor, Jillian Lauer, Xuan Li

Student Travel/Covid Relief Grant-Susana Beltran, Jill Claxton, Wei Dai, Cecily Davis, Heather Gerker, Paul Kienlen, Xin Li, Hyelin Park, Annette Pic, Ji Hye Park, Emily Spivey, Hanna Wickstrom, Jameelah Wright

Contact the Webmaster Team Last updated: Sep 15, 2022

Template Design

Search form

• Annual Report
• Directions to ISERP
• IAB 270 Seat Reservation
• Reserve the ISERP conference room
• Administrative Staff
• Research Staff
• ISERP Affiliates
• Affiliates with Active Awards
• ISERP Executive Committee
• ISERP Advisory Board Committee
• Anthropology
• Political Science
• Spring 2023
• Espresso with the Experts
• Applied Statistics Center Center for Pandemic Research Center for the Study of Wealth and Inequality Center on African American Politics and Society Center on Organizational Innovation Columbia Experimental Laboratory for the Social Sciences The AI Model Share Project Working Group on Computational Social Science
• American Politics Workshop Columbia University International Politics Seminar Comparative Politics Seminar Digital Mapping and Discourses of Space and Place Diversifying the Social Sciences: The Women in Economics Working Group History and Climate Change: Africa, Indigenous & Latin America, South Asia Political Economy Seminar Political Methodology Colloquium Sociology of Algorithms Wealth and Inequality Seminar Series Workshop on Climate Change Cooperation Workshop on Political Psychology
• Upcoming Events
• Past Events
• Calendar View
• Event Recordings
• Sponsored Events Guidelines
• Upcoming Opportunities
• View by Interests
• View by Organization
• Instructions and Details
• Workshops We've Funded
• About ISERP Seed Grants
• Seed Grants We've Funded
• Start-up Centers We've Funded
• Conferences We've Funded
• Graduate Student Conferences We've Funded
• Anti-Corruption
• Conflict of Interest
• Data Integrity
• International Travel
• PI Eligibility
• Applying for a Grant
• NSF Submissions
• NSF Templates
• Statistical Consulting
• Student Submissions
• Developing a Winning Research Proposal
• Receiving an Award
• Quarterly Reports
• NSF Extensions
• How to Read Sponsored Project Monthly Reports
• Active Awards
• Closed Awards
• Resources During COVID-19
• CTL's NSF Career Resources
• Computing Resources
• Data Use Agreements
• Library Data Management Resources
• Sample Project Descriptions
• Upload your Working Paper
• AP Documentation
• What Expenses are Reimbursable?
• How to complete a TBER
• Purchasing Documentation
• Risk Management Documentation
• Employees vs Consultants (Independent Contractors)
• How do I use Concur?
• How Do I Read My Monthly Unrestricted Report?
• Tax Exempt Status in 50 States
• 120 Days Travel
• Fly America
• Meals & Alcohol
• Preferred Airlines
• Preferred Vendors
• Preferred Hotels
• Preferred Travel Agencies
• Preferred Food Vendors
• Receipts and Reimbursments
• Travel Policy Overview
• Hiring a Consultant or Service Provider
• Interfolio/ASR-Recruitment of Academic Personnel
• Direct Deposit
• Manage my UNI
• Adminstrative Recruitment Guide
• Guide to Best Practices in Academic Search and Hiring
• Student Casuals Hires
• Student Officer Research Appointment
• Teaching Assistant - New Hire Checklist
• Temporary Staff Hires
• Job Opportunities
• Hiring Request Form for PI's
• QMSS Hiring Request Form
• Hire Data Form for Student Candidates
• Casual Employment Form
• Invention Agreement form
• NYSL 195 Non-Exempt-Hourly Rate Employees
• NYSL 195-Exempt-Salaried Employees
• Paid Family Leave Waiver Form
• QMSS DRA Application
• SSN Verification Form
• Self ID/Ethnicity Form
• Staff Associate Questionnaire
• Time Sheet Submission
• Bi-weekly Timesheets
• Payroll Calendar 2023-2024
• University Holidays Calendar
• Finance Gateway
• 2023-2024 Salary Guidelines for Officers of Research
• Employee Leave
• Faculty Handbook
• Minimum Qualification Requirements for Admin Staff
• Salary Information and Grades for Admin Staff
• 2110 Collective Bargaining Agreement
• 4100 CPW-UAW Agreement-Postdoctoral Workers
• 2710 SWC-UAW Collective Bargaining Agreement
• Student Services Online (SSOL)
• Frequently Asked Questions

Funding Opportunity

Aera-met dissertation fellowship program.

To support dissertation research that uses the Measures of Effective Teaching Longitudinal Database.

Deadline: 

Rolling deadline: .

Grant Category: 

Interests: 

• Social Science
• Public Policy
• Education Policy

Eligibility: 

• Foreigner (visa holder)
• Graduate Student

Funding Amount: 

Organization: 

• American Educational Research Association

Link to Opportunity: 

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

• Arctic Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants Arctic Social Sciences, Arctic System Sciences, and Arctic Observing Network Monday, May 16, 2022 , Thursday, December 15, 2022 , Monday, May 15, 2023 , Friday, December 15, 2023 , Wednesday, May 15, 2024 , Monday, December 16, 2024
• Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Social, Behavioral, and Economic Impact of COVID-19 in Underserved and Vulnerable Populations Monday, June 6, 2022 , Wednesday, October 5, 2022 , Monday, February 6, 2023 , Monday, June 5, 2023 , Thursday, October 5, 2023 , Monday, February 5, 2024 , Wednesday, June 5, 2024
• Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Behavioral and Social Science Priority Areas in Dementia Care Partner/Caregiver Research Friday, July 8, 2022 , Monday, November 14, 2022 , Friday, March 10, 2023 , Monday, July 10, 2023 , Monday, November 13, 2023 , Monday, March 11, 2024 , Tuesday, July 9, 2024 , Tuesday, November 12, 2024
• Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Sex and Gender Differences in Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Friday, July 8, 2022 , Monday, November 14, 2022 , Friday, March 10, 2023 , Monday, July 10, 2023 , Monday, November 13, 2023 , Monday, March 11, 2024 , Tuesday, July 9, 2024 , Tuesday, November 12, 2024
• Faculty Early Career Development Program Wednesday, July 27, 2022 , Wednesday, July 26, 2023 , Wednesday, July 24, 2024 , Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Find Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities by interest.

Don't want to miss our interesting news and updates! Make sure to join our newsletter list.

For general questions about ISERP programs, services, and events.

• Main line: +1.212.854.3081
• Email: [email protected]

Working Papers Bulletin Sign-up

Departments, university links.

• Columbia Homepage
• Human Resources
• Job opportunities

You are here:

• » AERA-MET Dissertation Fellowship Program

• Community and Engagement
• Honors and Awards
• Give Now 

Doctoral Student Jayla Moody Marshall Wins Chancellor’s Creating Community Outstanding Student Award

When Jayla Moody Marshall — a student in the Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development higher education opportunity, equity, and justice concentration — chose the NC State College of Education for her doctoral degree, she knew the program would help her achieve her goal of designing higher education environments where everyone knows they belong and matter. 

A commitment to creating more equitable environments for students in higher education has been a passion of Marshall’s throughout her educational career. Now that commitment has been recognized with the NC State Chancellor’s Creating Community Outstanding Student Award. 

“I am deeply grateful for the honor of receiving the Outstanding Student Award. Community is one of the cornerstones of my work, and I have found joy in cultivating, fostering and uplifting communities here at NC State and beyond,” Marshall said. “I have found my purpose in ensuring students feel seen, heard and supported. It is why I chose higher education, and it is why I will continue to choose and prioritize the experiences of the students I am privileged to work with and serve.”

In nominating her for the award, Alumni Distinguished Graduate Professors of Higher Education Alyssa Rockenbach and Joy Gaston Gayles cited Marshall’s ability to draw on her scholarship to design opportunities for students in the Higher Education Administration master’s degree program and Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development higher education opportunity, equity, and justice concentration and support prospective students by facilitating recruitment events, helping them find graduate assistantships and fellowships, and planning orientation and social events for admitted students. 

“Our master’s and doctoral students alike know they can turn to Jayla for mentorship and guidance along their graduate journeys,” the nomination letter said. “She anticipates what we need to do to maintain a program culture that reflects deep investment in and care for students; because of Jayla’s myriad contributions, we are becoming a humanizing graduate community defined by a commitment to educational equity and human thriving.”

The nomination letter also cited Marshall’s work as a graduate student representative for the Council on Ethnic Participation for the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) as well as her experience in student success and teaching

As she helps fellow students, Marshall said her time in the College of Education has enabled her to learn, teach, give presentations, host student events and recruit future students and, as a result, prepare to take on the next step in her career.  “I have gained skills that will set me up to thrive regardless of the ventures I take on throughout my career, and it is something I hope my future work inspires others to do. The beautiful thing about purpose-filled work is that it matters even on hard and frustrating days, and someone needs it,” she said. “I also want to thank my faculty tribe — Dr. Joy Gaston Gayles , my dissertation chair and champion; Dr. Krispin Barr, who has modeled servant-leadership for me in the most intentional ways; Dr. Alyssa Rockenbach , who makes room for me to show up authentically as myself and do work that matters to me, and Dr. Keon McGuire who has served as a true mentor and supporter since joining our team last year.”

• graduate students
• higher education opportunity
• homepage-news
• honors and awards
• Inclusiveness
• Jayla Moody Marshall

More From College of Education News

Assistant Professor of Learning, Design, and Technology Ela Castellanos-Reyes Wins May Kay Sommers Dissertation Award from Purdue University  

RTNN Wins 2024 Opal Mann Green Engagement and Scholarship Award 

Goodnight Distinguished Professor in Educational Equity Maria Coady Receives Leadership Through Research Award from AERA Second Language Research SIG 

Search NYU Steinhardt

2024 faculty first-look scholars.

Symone A. McCollum (she/her/hers) is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Higher Education Administration Program at Texas A&M University. Before joining Texas A&M University, Symone received her Bachelor of Science in Education and Public Policy and a Master of Education in Higher Education from The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include the educational trajectories of Black women in higher education, policies and practices that impact Black women's educational trajectories, and Black women's use of social media/technology. Symone also maintains a broader research interest in graduate student retention and support at the intersections of multiple marginalized identities.

Symone’s dissertation research will examine how Black women doctoral students at historically white institution use digital communities while navigating their graduate programs. Through a digital Black feminism theoretical lens and endarkened storywork methodology, she will investigate the extent to which digital communities serve as counterspaces for Black women doctoral students, helping them persist and reach their academic and professional aspirations.

Kavitha Murthi is pursuing her doctoral studies in the Department of Occupational Therapy at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She is collaborating with Counselor to the President, Dr. Kristie Patten, on a National Science Foundation (NSF) project titled “Developing Abilities and Knowledge for Careers in Design and Engineering for Students on the Autism Spectrum by Scaling Up Making Experiences.” Her research aims to investigate how interest-driven and strength-based engineering activities impact the learning and social development of autistic students. Kavitha is particularly interested in understanding how autistic adolescents interested in engineering and design engage in maker clubs to problem-solve independently using the Engineering Design Process (EDP). She is also dedicated to amplifying authentic autistic voices in her research by including her participants in the research process using a research process called Photovoice. Kavitha collaborated with her participants in different stages of the research process, namely developing socially valid research questions, data collection, and data analysis. She has also authored several peer-reviewed journal articles; most notably, she co-authored practice guidelines for occupational therapy practitioners working with autistic individuals. She also has presented at several national and international conferences.

Before beginning her doctoral studies at NYU, Kavitha obtained her post-professional graduate degree in Occupational Therapy from the United Kingdom and completed her undergraduate studies in Occupational Therapy at the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences in India. In the United Kingdom, she was inducted as a Fellow by the Higher Education Academy for her deep commitment to developing a culturally sensitive course for undergraduate occupational therapy students. She has extensive experience as a registered clinical pediatric occupational therapist in Mumbai and Edinburgh.

Kavitha has been invited to be a guest lecturer at NYU, Queen Margaret University (UK), and internationally. She is also invited to guest in several podcasts in her profession, like the OT Potential, Everyday Evidence by AOTA, and the OT Lifestyle movement. She also was interviewed to be a part of a documentary called ‘Finding Me in OT.’ The American Occupational Therapy Association has also invited her to be a reviewer on panels of award committees.

Additionally, she has contributed to various research projects, notably the Global Co-operation on Assistive Technology with the World Health Organization, for which she was nominated by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists in 2019. Kavitha is passionate about serving her professional community and has been invited as a project implementation manager in critical projects like the Occupational Therapy Narrative Database as an advisor to the American Occupational Therapy Association Evidence-Based Practice and Knowledge Translation group.  

According to CDC reports, 1 in 36 children in the United States are diagnosed with autism (CDC Reports, 2023), and estimates indicate that approximately 200,000 autistic students will enter universities and the workforce in the next decade (Lubin & Brooks, 2021). Consequently, inclusive education programs are gaining increased attention to prepare the educational and vocational systems to carefully integrate these students (Bakker et al., 2019). Nevertheless, many such programs still focus on remediating these students’ deficits in communication, problem-solving, sensory needs, and behavioral differences using interventions that aim to normalize them to non-autistic levels (Kornblau & Robertson, 2020; Patten-Koenig, 2020). Challenges arise when differences in executive functioning and problem-solving mimic social and behavioral challenges and are unnoticed or unmet (Cramm et al., 2013). 

Potent educational services that authentically include autistic students’ cognitive, sensory, and social differences are imperative to challenge conventionally dominant and ableist practices. To develop interventions that identify and develop these skills, the need to include autistic voices in educational research is imperative (Keating, 2021). Hence, this dissertation is developed to champion the voices of autistic middle schoolers who engage in independent problem-solving in informal educational contexts. This dissertation will attempt to shift the power dynamics toward the participants through authentic collaboration and include their perspectives at all stages in the decision-making process. By highlighting their strategies for independent problem-solving, this study will act as a starting point to develop educational interventions that value individual interests and build independent problem-solving to foster self-determination in these adolescents (Chapman, 2021).  Her dissertation will use the identity-first language "autistic individuals.” This non-ableist language describes their strengths and abilities and is a conscious decision. This language is favored by autistic communities and self-advocates and has been adopted by healthcare professionals and researchers (Bottema-Beutel et al., 2020; Kenny et al., 2016).

Iman Lathan is a former Division I women’s basketball player and a Southern California native. Currently, she is a Doctoral Candidate in Educational Culture, Policy, and Society within the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Her research revolves around exploring the commodification of Black women’s bodies, neoliberalism, NCAA, sports, and the Diaspora.

This qualitative case study aims to elucidate the internal mechanisms shaping the Division-I educational pathway and its role as a secondary diasporic conduit for Black female Division I basketball student-athletes. In so doing, I aim to unravel how the neoliberal intercollegiate sports model engages, exploits, and disposes individuals descended from the African Diaspora to sustain its operations. The research delves into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a neoliberal structure, akin to a secondary diasporic vessel, directing Black female student-athletes—descendants of the Black Atlantic Diaspora—to predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Employing Black feminist thought (BFT) and a queer diasporic lens, this study seeks to comprehend how Black female ball players, coaches, and parents perceive their roles, positions, and experiences within the confines of the NCAA's neoliberal structures.

Moreover, BFT and a queer and diasporic framework inform the research design and data interpretation of this study as this project seeks to contribute to a nuanced understanding of how the NCAA's systems and capitalist structures perceive, treat, and utilize Black female athletes. The scarcity of work on the intersection of femininity, Blackness, and sport within the realm of a male-dominated sport like basketball necessitates a fresh perspective. The application of a queer diasporic lens becomes paramount in unveiling aspects concealed within dominant epistemologies.

Sharon Lai-LaGrotteria is an international scholar from Hong Kong and Singapore. She began her academic journey at the University of Hong Kong as a Jockey Club Scholar, earning her Bachelor’s in English with First Class Honors and Master’s in Education with Distinction, then continued to complete her Graduate Degree in Applied Linguistics at the University of Oxford. Prior to joining Montclair State University as a Doctoral Fellow, Sharon served as an adjunct professor at the Jack Welch School of Business at Sacred Heart University, while concurrently holding writing seminars for first-year immigrant students at Monroe College in New York. An educator at heart, Sharon has taught at a wide range of schools, from preschool to higher education, both private and public, spanning from Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore, to Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. She also served as the Chief Education Director of Young Writers, a learning cooperative center established in 1997 with the mission of serving English learners in Southeast Asia. As a first-gen college graduate with humble upbringing, Sharon is a huge advocate for Asian and Asian American communities. She is a volunteer teacher at the Chinese Community Center, where she teaches Cantonese to heritage speakers and organizes community events for Chinese families across New Jersey.   

During the early stage of her research career, Sharon focused heavily on inclusive education, English language education, and culturally relevant pedagogy, where she conducted qualitative studies on the implementation of inclusive education in kindergartens, language teacher identity, and the use of drama as an example of culturally relevant pedagogy for English learners. Her work was published in various journals, including Action in Teacher Education, Journal of Religion and Health, and Journal of Loss and Trauma. She has presented at local and international conferences, including the AERA Annual Meetings over the last three years, and Redesigning Pedagogy Conference at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. As she continues to witness the troubling escalation of deadly violence against Asian communities across the country, Sharon’s research interests became more centered on policy perspectives and curriculum implementation concerning Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI).  Sharon’s dissertation research grew out of her experiences witnessing the troubling escalation of deadly violence against AAPI individuals in New York City during the pandemic. In pursuing meaningful ways of creating change for AAPI students in US schools, she extensively reviewed literature on AAPI history, spoke with district and school administrators, and collaborated with various advocacy groups to gather in-depth ethnographic data regarding the implementation of AAPI-inclusive curriculum across New Jersey. Given different state policies pertaining to the teaching of AAPI history across many parts of the States, this study will provide timely and novel insights related to how teachers enact this curriculum in K-12 classrooms. Engaging quantitative and qualitative methods, this study aims to explore broader trends across the state through the use of a teacher survey and case studies of individual teachers’ implementation. Beyond documenting the need for culturally responsive approaches, this study hopes to offer insights into the constraints and possibilities different stakeholders (teachers, school administrators, and policymakers) encounter when enacting curricular changes and implementing state mandates. 

Kia Turner is pursuing a PhD in race, inequality, and language in education at Stanford Graduate School of Education. She graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in history and literature in 2016 and from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2017. She is also pursuing her JD at Yale Law School. Kia taught middle school English in Harlem for five years, where she instituted a culturally relevant "Tools for Liberation" advisory curriculum. Kia is a recipient of the National Council of English Teacher's Early Career Educator of Color Leadership Award, Teaching Tolerance's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Fulbright-Hays Fellowship. She is currently a Knight Hennessy Fellow, a Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow, and a Stanford Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education Fellow.

Kia’s research seeks to understand how we might operationalize abolitionist theory and Black creative practices in educational and legal research and practice to (re)imagine speculative and liberatory educational and criminal legal systems. Kia works directly with youth, community organizers, movement lawyers, and teachers to build research-practice communities founded on long-term relationality. She specifically aims to uplift Black and other minoritized youth as scholars by co-authoring with the community members she works with. Her work pulls methodologically from different disciplines, as she uses archival, participatory, poetic, and more traditional social scientific methods to syncretically make knowledge outside of epistemic domination. 

Kia’s dissertation focuses on the long durée of artistic creation in abolitionist practice and theory. It does so through a historically grounded research intervention, inviting Black youth to use Black poetics and abolitionist theory to artistically reimagine legal decisions that have perpetuated carceral practices in and beyond educational systems. Ultimately, her dissertation aims to 1) deepen our understanding of the ancestral and contemporary role of the arts in abolitionist practice, 2) position Black youth as legal knowledge creators, and 3) introduce a framework for the dovetailing of artistic, participatory, and social science methods in studies that aim to build abolitionist futures.

Briana A. Savage is currently a Ph.D. student in the Higher Education Administration and Policy program at the University of California, Riverside. She serves as a Research Associate at the UCR Center for Athletes' Rights and Equity (CARE), as well as a Project MALES graduate scholar.  Briana received her M.Ed. from the USC Rossier School of Education, and her B.A. in Political Science with a double minor in Education and Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles.

As a former college athletics practitioner, she combines theory with practice and is involved in multiple projects centered on Black college athlete experiences on higher education campuses. Briana focuses on exposing how racism, sexism, and antiblackness are present within higher education and NCAA policies and practices in order to create equitable environments for diverse student athlete populations. Her dissertation research, tentatively titled “Imagining Life After Sport: Black Women College Athletes’ Postgraduate Career Transitions”, will use antiblackness and intersectionality theory to examine how racialized and gendered experiences of D-I Black women college athletes, during their undergraduate years, influence their postgraduate career transitions.  Outside of her dissertation, she is involved in a co-authored, multi-paper project focused on Black Student Athlete Organizations on PWI campuses serving as counterspaces and places of healing for Black college athletes. Additionally, as a Research Associate for UCR CARE, Briana is involved in projects centered on Black athlete development and experiences during college (e.g. sources of support, engagement activities, and mentorship). Her most recent co-authored publication highlights the lack of career preparation beyond sports, hyperfocus on eligibility requirements over academics, and the microaggressions and racism evident within college athletics departments across the D-I level, specific to Black athletes. 

Maricela is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants who valued education but were only able to obtain third-grade level educations. Maricela’s mother was her first teacher, she taught her to read and write in Spanish when she was four and her father often encouraged her and her siblings to pursue higher education so that they could have better paid and less arduous jobs. Maricela Bañuelos received her Sociology B.A. from the University of California, (UC) Santa Barbara in 2016, and graduated with Summa Cum Laude, highest honors. When Maricela started college, she took sociology of education and sociology of inequality courses that allowed her to understand the inequities she observed in educational institutions and how structural oppression limited the opportunities of the communities she comes from. This led her to pursue roles where she could support the higher education pathways of underrepresented students of color. For example, she served as an officer for La Escuelita [The Little School], a non-profit that supported the higher education pathways of low-income students of color by providing college scholarships, organizing a Student-Parent Conference at UC Santa Barbara, and offering free tutoring for students in K-12. She also worked for the Educational Opportunity Program, where she served as the Chicanx Latinx Resource Center mentor and created and facilitated programming to support the experiences of first-generation and low-income students of color. After graduating, she worked for City Year Los Angeles, and worked in an after-school program at a high school serving predominantly low-income Latinx students. She received her master’s in Educational Policy and Social Context from UC Irvine in 2020 and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Sociology at UC Irvine with an emphasis in Chicano Latino studies. Maricela was awarded the Ford Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in 2021, to support her doctoral research on issues of access and persistence in higher education. She is particularly interested in the educational pathways and social mobility of first-generation college students, low-income students, and underrepresented students of color.

Maricela’s research examines the role of race, class, gender, and intersectionality in shaping educational and occupational experiences. Maricela recently published a co-authored article titled “Gendered Deference: Perceptions of Authority and Competence Among Latina/o Physicians in Medical Institutions” in the top ranked journal Gender & Society. Our study found that gendered demonstrations of deference manifested through 1) gendered cultural taxation; 2) microaggressions from women nurses and staff and; 3) the questioning of authority and competence. These findings highlight the importance of gendered deference in transforming medical schools and medical workplaces into more inclusive environments. Through this project, her research interests have extended into examining the role of peoples’ social location in shaping not only their educational trajectories but also shaping their occupational experiences. 

Maricela’s research has also focused on the doctoral pipeline and improving accessibility and retention of underrepresented students. One of her studies focuses on understanding the forms of support and barriers first-generation Latine college students experience on their pathways towards enrolling in doctoral programs. She conducted 25 semi-structured interviews with first-generation Latine students who successfully enrolled in doctoral programs in California. She co-authored a paper examining professors’ influence in first-generation Latine college students’ pathways into doctoral programs, which has now been published in the journal of Race Ethnicity and Education. 

Her dissertation builds on this research by employing a longitudinal qualitative methodology spanning across three years (2021- 2024), that interrogates the experiences of 45 Latine participants who either 1) applied and enrolled into Ph.D. programs or 2) applied and but did not enroll in a Ph.D. program. In one chapter, she compares the social capital of Latines who got accepted into Ph.D. programs to that of Latines who did not get admitted or declined admission and the impact that COVID-19 had on their doctoral application processes. In another chapter, she examines how resources and social support affect whether Latines decide to reapply to Ph.D. programs, and how Latines navigate the doctoral reapplication processes. In a third chapter, she interrogates how information and networks at the time of application affect students’ acclimation and satisfaction in their Ph.D. program in the first two years and seeks to understand the long-term impact of applying and enrolling in Ph.D. programs after the onset of COVID-19. While sociologist broadly understand the inequitable processes that shape Latine Ph.D. trajectories, her dissertation will meaningfully contribute to the field by examining these processes longitudinally across multiple junctures, underscoring the impact of COVID-19, and including Latine with stifled and nonlinear Ph.D. pathways, whose experiences are important to fully understanding the seals and leaks in the Latine Ph.D. pipeline.

Karen Villegas is a doctoral candidate in the Berkeley School of Education at UC Berkeley. She received her B.A. in Political Science from UCLA. Karen’s overarching work explores issues of language, citizenship, and nation-building processes.

Karen’s dissertation is a study of the ideological conceptions of language and literacy practices in adult, English as a Second Language (ESL) citizenship classes. Adults enroll in these classes to prepare for the naturalization process; a means of acquiring U.S. citizenship available to lawful permanent residents after meeting extensive federal requirements. Using a range of methods, including interviews, participant observation, and archival research, Karen’s work shows how these learning spaces do not foster a sense of political incorporation or belonging, and instead position U.S. immigrants to identify as workers rather than citizens who can influence their world. Although Karen’s dissertation identified ESL citizenship classes as indoctrinating spaces, their future work will examine the political possibilities of such spaces. While thinking beyond liberal notions of justice. Karen plans to observe, possibly even design, a community-based, Spanish-speaking ESL citizenship classroom, centering a pedagogical approach that explicitly privileges concientización by fostering critical consciousness among learners toward counter-hegemonic understandings of belonging, learning, and citizenship.

Khrysta A. Evans is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Educational Policy Studies program with a Social Sciences concentration and a minor in Gender and Women's Studies. She is born and raised in the Bronx, NY and earned her BA in sociology from the University of Maryland, and her MA in educational studies from the University of Michigan. Before coming back to the academy for her Ph.D., Khrysta spent several years working in student support roles in schools and non-profit organizations. As a scholar, Khrysta is excited to learn about Black girls’ knowledge production and placemaking within schools. Situated in sociology of education, Black studies, gender and women’s studies, and cultural geography, Khrysta's teaching, research, and mentoring are all concerned with how race, ethnicity, gender, and place shape students’ educational experiences, with specific attention to how Black girls develop and employ spatial strategies and social networks to navigate their schools.

Using Black feminist geographies to animate her scholarship, Khrysta’s research (1) attends to the influence of ethnicity in Black girls racialized and gendered socialization within schools; (2) interrogates the role of peer groups in Black girls’ schooling; and (3) explores how the relationship between Black girls’ spatial strategies and their schools’ organizational routines differs across organizational contexts. In her current study, a 10-month multi-site ethnography at two New York City public high schools, she centers the experiences of Black West Indian girls. Khrysta uses social network analysis, walking interviews, and education journey mapping to understand how Black girls negotiate their own understanding of their schools and peer networks. Complemented by document analysis and interviews with school staff, this research seeks to understand the policies and actors shaping these girls’ school landscape. Her study positions Black girls’ articulations of their lived experiences as critical insight for education stakeholders seeking to improve the inequitable racialized and gendered school experiences of marginalized youth.

Stephanie Bent is a Ph.D. candidate in the Higher Education, Student Affairs, and International Education Policy program with a concentration in Student Affairs at the University of Maryland. At the University of Maryland, she is also a student in the Latin American and Caribbean Studies graduate certificate program. She holds a Master of Education in Anthropology and Education from Teachers College-Columbia University, a Master of Science in Higher Education-Student Affairs from Florida State University, and an Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics for Georgia Tech. From her experience working in residence life, living-learning communities, and academic advising at various institutions, Stephanie understands the challenges student affairs practitioners face in using theory in their practice. Stephanie sees her practitioner experience as an asset for producing scholarship which student affairs practitioners can use for translating theory to practice.  Stephanie migrated from Jamaica to the United States during high school. She proudly embraces her Jamaican culture in all aspects of her life. She attributes her love for education to one of the proverbs she recited in school in Jamaica: “Silver and gold will vanish away, but a good education will never decay.” Stephanie uses research to quench her curiosity for learning and hopes her teaching inspires students to be curious learners.  During her time at Teachers College, Stephanie learned about the power of the Caribbean-American identity in Brooklyn, NY. Stephanie identifies as Caribbean American and advocates for alliances among Caribbean people. She is committed to using her research and teaching to advance liberation for Caribbean peoples. Stephanie received a Fulbright student award to complete her dissertation fieldwork in Barbados, where she is exploring how to teach youth (18-25 year old) about decolonization.  Stephanie is an avid track and field fan. During the Olympics and the World Athletics Championships, you will find her watching a phone or tv screen cheering for a Jamaican or a Caribbean athlete. Stephanie finds inspiration in the lives of the Jamaican Women track athletes, especially Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce. Stephanie enjoys spending time with her nieces, who boldly hold Stephanie accountable for resting by inviting her to virtually join the play activity of the day.

Stephanie Bent's research focuses on decolonizing higher education and teaching about decolonization in the Caribbean and among the Caribbean diaspora in the United States. She draws on theories and methods from Caribbean Studies, U.S. Black Feminism, and digital humanities to identify practical ways to decolonize research methods. As a decolonization scholar, she also disrupts the colonial flow of knowledge from the Global North to the Global South by positioning the Caribbean as a source of knowledge in her push against how U.S. higher education and student affairs enacts coloniality. 

Stephanie explores how Caribbean youth and higher education students understand and enact decolonization. Her dissertation research is about how Barbadian youth aged 18-25 years understand decolonization. The Barbados government provides public education about decolonization through policy and programming, and Stephanie's research will provide insight into how youth respond to public discourse about decolonization. As research about Caribbean students' critical consciousness is limited, her dissertation research will undoubtedly raise questions for future research about how to engage college students in decolonizing the Caribbean. 

Stephanie also explores how Caribbean-American students develop a positive view of their ethnic identity. With limited research on the ethnic differences among Black students, Caribbean-American students' experiences are rendered invisible. When Black Caribbean college students in the United States want to explore their history and culture, student affairs theories direct practitioners to guide students toward exploring African American history. Stephanie’s research pushes back on this neo-colonial practice, which elevates the United States as the center of global history and culture. In her research, she aims to understand how Caribbean students currently use and could potentially use Caribbean culture to respond to racism in the United States. 

Stephanie’s research also explores how embracing Caribbean culture can create effective educational practices for Caribbean higher education. She explores existing student affairs practice in the Caribbean and uses Caribbean Studies theories to theorize about culturally appropriate Caribbean student affairs practices. 

Stephanie uses her research to push against the dominance of Western epistemologies and ontologies in student affairs practice and research. She uses U.S. Black Feminism and Caribbean Studies to form alternative methodologies. She hopes her scholarship provides pathways for others to develop their Caribbean-flavored student affairs scholarship and practice. 

Nicolas Daniel Silva, LMSW, MS, "Nico" is a Society for Neuroscience "NSP" Scholar, social worker, artist, scientist, musician, curator, theatre maker, performance studies researcher, writer, and consultant. He holds a BS in Microbiology with a concentration in Neuroscience, a Master of Social Work, a Master of Biological Sciences and Women's and Gender Studies and is a PhD student in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) investigating the use of music and sound as health behaviors, indicators, and neurotechnological interventions. He has lectured on performance studies theories, texts, and realities in the Department of Theatre and Dance with Dr. Melissa Melpignano, the Director of Dance. The first iteration of the course culminated in a multidisciplinary performance installation, MAPPING THE RIO which was part of World Water Week UTEP. He has been invited to the NYU Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics Global Convening where he was part of the "Thinking Beyond the Human" Working Group. Last Summer, he presented on the Border Bioentrepeneurship Ecosystem at the NYU/Imperial College London Racial Equity in Technology Entrepreneurship Workshop. He published an article titled "Ultraendurance Sports: A Call to Action" in the peer reviewed Sport Social Work Journal. He also reviews for the Journal as an advanced social work and ultraendurance performance practitioner and researcher. He is a contributor to the Houston-based online arts magazine Glasstire and is a supporter, entrepreneur, and advocate of the Paso Del Norte region. Most recently, he was awarded a BIPOC Point Foundation scholarship and is part of the sixth cohort of the Global Arts in Medicine Fellowship. He has attended and was awarded a Full Scholarship to the University of Florida Arts in Health Intensive 2023. He also was awarded a 50% Professional Scholarship to the 2024 Arts in Health Research Intensive with the Social Biobehavioural Research Group at the University College London.  He recently submitted manuscripts for a co-authored book chapter in the Palgrave Macmillan Anthology "Fashioning the Borderlands" and an article in a special issue of the Routledge journal Studies in Clinical Social Work: Transforming Practice, Education, and Research. He currently serves as a Ph.D. Research Associate under the mentorship of Dr. Eva Moya Ph.D., LMSW and has engaged in focused study on the impacts and realities of sensorineural hearing loss with his Dissertation Committee Chair, Dr. Jason Mallonee, DSW, LCSW-S.

Nico's research and practice spans many disciplines and intersections including performance, social work, arts in health, medicine, and society, mental health, disability, gender studies, queer studies, and basic needs security.

Blayne D. Stone, Jr. is a PhD candidate in the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis program in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a focus in Higher Education and a minor in Counseling Psychology. As an Army soldier's son, Blayne has lived in multiple states and abroad. He earned an M.A. in Human Development Psychology from Cornell University, and a M.Ed. in Higher Education and B.A. in Liberal Arts, both from Florida International University. Before starting his Ph.D., Blayne has worked in student affairs positions and within support placement positions for youth and adolescents in need. He has worked on the Career Readiness portfolio team as a summer intern for the Education Strategy Group (ESG) in 2023, focusing on projects related to social capital development and middle school career exploration. Currently, he serves as a Research Associate in Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory where he designs, conducts, and disseminates research that informs policymakers, practitioners, and concerned citizens on how to best promote equitable and inclusive learning and work environments in higher education.

Blayne's research interest focuses on advocating for educational equity and justice for Black college students with foster care experiences. His research explores the ways Black youth transition from foster care and through higher education institutions. He utilizes qualitative methodological approaches to heighten the awareness of the educational stories of students who have experienced time in the foster care system. Through his work, he examines the systems (e.g., foster care, child welfare, higher education) that continue to harm Black and brown bodies and explores strategies to improve their experiences. His dissertation explores the college-going process of Black students who were formerly in foster care. More specifically, his dissertation research examines how and why Black students formerly in foster care selected a specific institution and academic major.

Jennifer Lopez is a first-generation Mexican-American who strives for social justice and equity every day from her elementary classroom in Sylmar, California. With over 12 years of teaching experience in both elementary and middle school, Jennifer has also served as a grade level lead, a girls’ soccer coach, a student council facilitator, and mentor teacher. Outside of her educator responsibilities, Jennifer is actively involved in Educators for Excellence (E4E). Jennifer was a member of E4E’s Los Angeles Teacher Policy Team that wrote “One School of Thought: Moving Towards the Common Core” in 2015. Currently, she is on the Executive Committee of E4E’s National Teacher Leader Council, helping plan, facilitate, and guide the work for this group. As a lifelong learner, Jennifer is currently completing her doctorate in Educational Leadership at the University of Southern California, in the concentration of Leading Instructional Change. She previously received her B.A. from University of California, Los Angeles and M.A.T from Duke University. In her free time, you can find her hiking at national parks, watching soccer, or traveling the world. 

Her qualitative action research focused on how to best support her colleagues' capacity in creating more meaningful learning opportunities in math. In order to accomplish this, Jennifer facilitated weekly professional learning sessions for classified staff (i.e., teaching assistants and/or after-school coaches) to support Latinx students with math during the after-school program. Utilizing adaptive leadership, critical reflection, and the andragogical moves of modeling, cognitive structures, and discourse, Jennifer sought to create transformative learning moments for her colleagues as they lesson plan. The findings for this study can help inform educators, administrators, and after-school programming on how to create the conditions and structures to promote more meaningful learning opportunities for students.

Jesse Enriquez is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Education Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is a proud product of two Hispanic Serving Institutions; he earned his B.A. in Kinesiology from CSU, Chico, and M.A. in Postsecondary Educational Leadership from San Diego State University. Prior to starting his doctoral studies, he worked in the non-profit sector and in higher education as a student affairs professional. He currently serves as the Associate Director of the CSU Young Men of Color Consortium and as an adjunct faculty member at California State University, Channel Islands, which is located a short distance from his hometown of Oxnard, California.

Jesse’s research explores the lived experiences of Students of Color who begin their postsecondary education at “two-year” open access institutions (i.e., community colleges) with hopes of transferring to a “four-year” universities to complete a bachelor’s degree.

His research unapologetically uplifts the voices of students on the margins, particularly young men of color, student-parents, and community college students. To examine the transfer phenomenon, he employs critical frameworks such as the transfer receptive culture framework (Jain et al., 2010) that analyze how institutions of higher education facilitate the transfer pathway for students who have been historically underrepresented and excluded from higher education. Rather than focusing on what Students of Color can do to improve, change, or learn to adapt to their environments; his research examines what institutions of higher education can do to improve, how they can change, and how they adapt to their students.

Patricia Martín is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Education & Information Studies in the Division of Higher Education at UCLA. She was born in San Juan de Los Lagos, Jalisco, and raised in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Her experiences navigating higher education as a first-generation student and inequities in her P-20 schooling informed her research interests in studying higher education enrollment management, college recruiting, advertising, and college access. She received her bachelor’s degree in sociology with minors in education and applied psychology from UC Santa Barbara and a master's degree in higher education from UCLA. Patricia serves as a graduate researcher for UCLA’s DataX initiative in the curriculum development and redesigning of undergraduate and graduate courses at the intersection of data, ethics, and society.

Her research interests focus on the intersection of college access and organizational behavior. She is interested in using computational social science to investigate postsecondary institutions' enrollment and advertising practices and their effects on college access for underserved students. Her dissertation research tackles understanding universities’ digital marketing approaches as a timely and critical way to inform equity in college admissions. She employs a 12-month critical ethnography informed by Chicana/Latina Feminist epistemologies with high school students from California’s San Joaquin Valley (SJV). She utilizes semi-structured interviews, participant observations, collection of digital advertisements (e.g., emails and social media ads), and focus group interviews to explore the role digital advertising practices play in informing students’ college search and college application behaviors. Through a critical discourse analysis, findings from her dissertation shed light on the overwhelming information students receive through generic messaging and promotion of out-of-state, short-term, non-degree programs, and private institutions– perpetuating the inaccessibility of college.

I am a dedicated educational leader with a proven track record of success in fostering academic excellence and nurturing the potential within America’s underserved and undervalued communities.

As the superintendent of a thriving urban charter school district, I am proud to have spearheaded initiatives that have led to our institution being recognized as the #1 unionized charter school in New York State (22-23) based on student proficiency rates in ELA/Math. Our unwavering commitment to minimizing learning gaps, even amidst the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, has been critical to our success. Under my leadership, we secured a third 5-year Charter Renewal – the maximum time allotted in NY State – and expanded our reach from a K-8 to a K-12. As we eagerly anticipate our first graduating class in 2024, my excitement is matched only by my resolve to continue providing an exceptional education to every student. My passion lies in transforming educational spaces to empower students, engage parents, and build communities. I advocate for creating inclusive policies supporting Black male leadership, recognizing their critical role in education, shaping student outcomes, and community engagement. I specialize in developing strategies that activate and sustain parent involvement, and my research in this area aims to provide actionable insights for educators and policymakers alike. With a focus on the intersectionality of race and leadership, I am committed to advancing practices that promote equity, cultural responsiveness, and authentic community partnerships.

In the dynamic landscape of urban charter schools, the role of school leaders is pivotal in shaping educational experiences and fostering community engagement. This research agenda delves into the intersection of Black male leadership and parent involvement within these academic settings. By examining Black male school leaders’ experiences, challenges, and impact, we aim to illuminate critical insights for enhancing parent engagement and support.

Understanding the Experiences of Black Male School Leaders Objective: Through qualitative interviews and focus groups, we will explore the unique experiences of Black male school leaders. These leaders navigate complex educational landscapes, and their perspectives can shed light on effective strategies for engaging Black parents and creating a supportive environment. Examining Black Parent Engagement in Urban Charter Schools Objective: Employing quantitative methods, we will assess the levels and types of parent involvement in urban charter schools with predominantly Black student populations. Epstein’s six types of parent involvement will serve as our analytical framework, allowing us to understand the multifaceted ways parents engage with the school community. Investigating the Impact of Black Male Leadership on Black Parent Engagement Objective: By comparing Black parent engagement levels in schools led by Black male leaders versus those led by leaders of other demographics, we seek to identify the specific impact of Black male leadership. Understanding how these leaders influence parent involvement can inform targeted interventions and best practices. Framework Analysis Using Bass’s Black Male Care (BMC) Framework Objective: Bass’s (2020) Black Male Care (BMC) framework provides a lens through which we will analyze the experiences of Black male school leaders. By examining their caregiving practices, emotional labor, and relational dynamics, we aim to uncover nuanced insights into fostering parent engagement and building a supportive school community. Identifying Barriers and Facilitators to Black Male Leadership Objective: Our investigation will delve into the factors that impact the representation of Black male leadership in urban charter schools. From recruitment challenges to retention strategies and professional development opportunities, we will identify barriers and facilitators that shape the leadership landscape. In summary, this research agenda seeks to amplify the voices of Black male school leaders, unravel the complexities of parent engagement, and contribute to informed practices that empower both educators and parents in urban charter schools. Through rigorous exploration, we aspire to create more equitable and thriving educational environments for all stakeholders.

Nicole is in the final stages of her Ph.D. program in Psychology, specializing in Brain, Behavior, and Quantitative Science at the University of Kansas. A NYC native, she pursued her undergraduate studies in Communication and Sciences Disorders at the University of Central Florida, followed by a Master’s in Speech Pathology at Howard University. Nicole then worked as a certified medical-based speech-language pathologist for two years before obtaining a second Master's degree in Cognitive Science from Johns Hopkins University. Her academic journey continued at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where she completed a clinical doctorate in Speech Pathology and chose to further her research by pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Kansas. Nicole is deeply committed to enhancing diversity in academia, a passion that has led her to significant roles such as the inaugural Dean's Diversity Ambassador at Johns Hopkins University and a Diversity Ambassador at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Outside of her academic and professional endeavors, Nicole has a passion for global travel and cherishes spending quality time with family and friends. 

Nicole's research is focused on investigating the underlying neural mechanisms involved in speech and language. Her dissertation work focuses on using EEG to assess changes in sensorimotor rhythm modulation following 2 distinct motor training paradigms, potentially improving access to Brain-Computer Interface technology for those with severe motor impairments. As she moves forward, Nicole aims to apply these insights to select optimal interventions based on individual neurological profiles. Additionally, her work emphasizes the importance of integrating patient and caregiver perspectives, ensuring her research remains relevant and accessible. Nicole is committed to translating theoretical insights into practical, life-altering interventions for people with complex communication needs.

Mariatere Tapias is an arts-based teacher and educational researcher. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, she is a doctoral candidate in the Urban Education program at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. At a young age, she picked up needles and thread to imagine and give shape to her world. Sewing was how mami made a living, and her grandmother Amá , made patchwork blankets to develop new ideas. In her family, textile work was more than a product centered art form but a practice of being in dialogue, community, inquiry, and care. Stitching was a process of looking back to critically examine and carry the knowledge of their ancestors forward, along with new findings, questions, and methods. Over time, she understood that each finished project was never an ending but an invitation towards something new, unexpected, and not yet fully visible. Mariatere brings this range of perspectives and practices to her research, as a methodology that facilitates new forms of embodiment, leaning into uncertainty, and critical consciousness in her scholarship. With over twenty years of experience teaching textile arts as a social and contemplative practice, Mariatere has worked in a variety of New York City environments: as an early childhood teacher, in youth and adult workshop settings, and most recently at an Older Adult Center. As the founder of the Slow Textiles Art Collective, she asks: Who are we engaged in radical imagination with? What healing practices are we nurturing? Where do we carry laughter and love? How do we undo, mend, and make what we imagine? In 2021, Mariatere became a founding member of the restorative / transformative justice group in the Urban Education program at the Graduate Center. With a commitment to community healing and engagement, she volunteers as a circle keeper with the New York Peace Institute. She turns to the land and ancestors to shape her sense of hope and direction.

Mariatere’s dissertation explores how artmaking as scholarship supports inclusivity, justice, and wellbeing in teaching and learning. In response to the harm caused by a positivist worldview that, all too often, reduces people to "objects of study," she centers collaborative seeing and making as a methodological response to the extractive nature of research. Through an emergent and participatory framework, she examines four themes: listening and collective agency, erasure and inclusionary justice, educational research as a practice of freedom, and student thriving. Her scholarship combines autoethnography, playwriting, and artmaking as paths for contemplation and transformative action in and outside of the academy. Bridging the divide between art and science, her project weaves together multiple worldviews to explore the generative possibilities of radical imagining. In her opening chapter, Mariatere creates map-poems to illustrate how artmaking can help us document injustice and increase methodological transparency in our work as researchers. In chapter 2, she examines the arpilleras (tapestries) in the digital archive at the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Chile to investigate the consequences of institutional erasure. Then, through a one-act play, she participates in archival repair and the recovery of stories. In chapter 3, three paintings serve as heuristics to examine how artmaking contributes to educational research as a practice of freedom and wellbeing. In chapter 4, she centers BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) college students’ experiences in a reimagined research methods classroom, and how their perspectives regarding what a thriving learning environment looks, sounds, and feels like evolves over the course of a semester. Finally, in her closing chapter, she examines the transformative outcomes of artmaking as scholarship.

Currently, Martha is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Berkeley Graduate School of Education. Stemming from her own experiences navigating the beginning of her graduate education as an undocumented student, her dissertation seeks to uplift the academic, social, and financial experiences of undocumented Latinx/a/o/ graduate students attending the University of California. Through her research, Martha seeks to understand how institutions can attract, retain, and graduate undocumented graduate students. Martha’s doctoral work has been made possible by different research centers at the University of California, (UC Berkeley) including the Center for Race and Gender, Greater Good Science Center, and the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues. Martha holds a master’s degree in education from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in Latin American & Latino Studies from UC Santa Cruz. In her spare time, Martha loves visiting new restaurants and sharing meals with her husband.

Within the undocumented student literature, we have limited insights into the trajectories of undocumented graduate students. To date, only a handful of studies have examined the experiences of undocumented students enrolled in professional programs, including law school (Escudero et al., 2019; Freeman & Valdivia, 2021; Kennedy, 2014; Lee, 2020; Olivas, 2020). Similarly, only a few studies have examined the experiences of students enrolled in research-focused doctoral programs (Lara, 2014; Lara & Nava, 2018; Landgrave, 2021; Montiel et al., 2020). Collectively, these studies have been pivotal in furthering the undocumented student scholarship. However, it is noteworthy to highlight that some of these studies have not interviewed undocumented graduate students directly (Escudero et al., 2019; Lara, 2014; Lara & Nava, 2018; Montiel et al., 2020).  To fill in this critical gap in the literature, my dissertation centers on the voices and experiences of undocumented graduate students through the use and analysis of students’ testimonios. Specifically, it draws upon 44 testimonio interviews with 22 undocumented graduate students enrolled in one of the 10 University of California (UC) campuses. By doing so, this dissertation examines the educational experiences and trajectories of undocumented graduate students enrolled in professional and doctoral research-focused programs within the (UC) system and how they are shaped by their field of study, campus, and ever-shifting immigration statuses. I further analyze how the UC system’s commitments toward its undocumented student population have been operationalized and examine the commitments that remain unfulfilled. While the undocumented student college population is remarkably diverse in terms of ethnic backgrounds (Teranishi et al., 2015), this dissertation focuses on a specific subpopulation within the broader undocumented student community — undocumented Latinx/a/o graduate students within the UC system. Here, I use the Latinx/a/o terms interchangeably to refer to individuals who are foreign-born and who have ancestry to a Spanish-speaking Latin American country in Central and South America, and the Caribbean (García Bedolla, & Hosam, 2021).  To examine the complicated and shifting landscape that undocumented graduate students experience within the UC system, my dissertation draws upon “liminal legality” (Menjívar, 2006). Liminal legality (Menjívar, 2006) allows scholars to move beyond antiquated black-and-white conceptualizations of immigration status that once rendered individuals strictly either documented or undocumented. Liminal legality has been used to examine how federal-level policies have granted individuals an in-between immigration status (Cebulko, 2014; Hamilton et al., 2020; Morales Hernandez, & Enriquez, 2021; Roth, 2019). I extend liminal legality (Menjívar, 2006) to examine the role of federal, state, and institutional level policies.

Gabriel Rodríguez Lemus, Jr. (he/él) is a 4th year Ph.D. student in the Program in Higher Education Leadership & Policy (PHELP) at The University of Texas at Austin with a dual graduate portfolio in Women & Gender Studies with a specialization in LGBTQ+ Studies and Mexican American & Latinx/a/o Studies. He is the son of Gabriel Rodríguez López and Rosario Lemus Quezada, who immigrated to Fresno, California, from Nueva Italia, Michoacán, México. Born and raised in Fresno, California, he has also lived in San José, California; Tucson, Arizona; Indianapolis, Indiana; and currently resides in Austin, Texas. He earned his M.S.Ed. in Higher Education & Student Affairs from Indiana University Bloomington and his B.A. in Sociology, with a concentration in Community Change from San José State University. Currently, he is a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) for Dr. Alison Kafer, College of Liberal Arts, GRA for Project LEAPS (Latinx Education After Public Schools), and the Graduate Conference Coordinator for the Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, College of Liberal Arts.  Gabriel’s contributions, scholarship, and service have earned him state and national recognition by receiving the 2023 Tracy Davis Emerging Research Award, Coalition on Men & Masculinities from ACPA; the 2023 AAHHE Best Scholarly Paper by the Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE); selected as 2022 Graduate Fellow by the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education (TACHE); a 2022 BIPOC Scholar by the Point Foundation; an 2021 & 2023 HSF Scholar by the Hispanic Scholarship Fund; and a 2021 Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program Fellow by The California State University. He currently serves as Consulting Editor for the newly formed Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education and as an Editorial Board Member for Research in Brief for the Journal of College Student Development. Moreover, he was appointed to be the Social Media Coordinator & Webmaster for SIG 168 Graduate and Postdoctoral Education Across Disciplines for the American Educational Research Association (AERA). At UT Austin, he is the Founder and Co-Executive Director of the LatinX Graduate Student Association.

His academic research focuses on four main areas: (1) Men & Masculinities of Color, specifically Queer & Trans Latinx/o Masculinities & Disabilities, (2) Latinx/a/o People in Higher Education, (3) Critical Disability Studies in Higher Education, and (4) Qualitative Research Methods, specifically Arts-Based & Visual Methodologies. As an interdisciplinary educational scholar, his work lives at the intersections of Higher Education, Jotería Studies, Chicanx & Latinx Studies, and Critical Disability Studies. His dissertation work engages, complicates, & interrogates the ways Latinx/o masculinities are understood, specifically for queer & trans Latinx/o collegians living with disabilities. He will be conducting an arts-based participatory action research study for his dissertation. He will be organizing an arts-based collective that elicits art, poems, and photography at a Hispanic-Serving Institution. As a photographer and poet, he believes in the power of using art in higher education research, specifically bringing the various forms of knowledge production of queer & trans Latinx/a/o people into the academy. Ultimately, as a queer jotx first-generation Latinx doctoral student who lives with a disability, his work is deeply tied to his positionality.

Janella D. Benson is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is from the Eastside of Detroit, MI. She has over 10 years of experience working with students in secondary and postsecondary environments on easing their transition to and through postsecondary education. Janella holds an MA in Higher Education/Student Affairs from Eastern Michigan University, and a BA in Communication Studies and Political Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a College Advisor within high schools in Detroit helping students prepare and navigate the college application process. She also worked with adjudicated youth on developing psychosocial and interpersonal skills that aided in their transition from a carceral setting through secondary attainment and postsecondary access. Finally, she worked in postsecondary transition programs supporting historically minoritized students navigating the transition into college through graduate education attainment. Her personal and professional experiences are deeply intertwined in her research. Janella’s dissertation explores Black women’s transition processes and the ways in which bridge programs influence their transition to and navigation through college during various socio-historical contexts.

Her research agenda draw from sociological frameworks and uses qualitative methodologies to (1) explore Black women’s transition through higher education programs to the professoriate and (2) examine the positive racialized experiences of Black women in higher education. Guided by this line of inquiry, her research will empower Black women to develop a legacy of fulfillment as they navigate to and through higher education.

Hayejin Kim is a Ph.D. candidate in Research in Occupational Therapy at New York University. She holds her MA in Occupational Therapy from the University of Southern California and her BHS in Occupational Therapy from Hanseo University, South Korea. Her research interests focus on accessible community-based rehabilitation programs that integrate technology to support individuals with stroke. Under the guidance of Dr. Grace Kim, she is currently working on her dissertation project aimed at investigating the key factors influencing patient engagement in videoconferencing-based telehealth among community-dwelling individuals with stroke. Prior to her Ph.D. studies, she worked as an occupational therapist in an inpatient rehabilitation hospital in South Korea, where she specialized in rehabilitating patients with neurological conditions.

Her research interests stem from her clinical work with individuals with stroke, where she frequently observed their struggles in transitioning back to their homes. Many faced barriers due to the lack of adequate rehabilitation services in their communities, leaving them confined to hospital settings long after the acute phase of their recovery. Witnessing the gap in community-based rehabilitation services, which are critical for reintegration into society, fueled her resolve to empower patients to regain independence and reintegrate into their communities, driving her towards research.

Seeking to enhance her expertise in research on community-based rehabilitation, she pursued further study in this area during her Ph.D. Under the guidance of Dr. Grace Kim, she has centered her research on the integration of mobile technology in stroke rehabilitation. Her work as the lead author in a study exploring mobile technology use among individuals with stroke unveiled their positive attitudes towards the use of technology in home-based exercise. In collaboration with Dr. Grace Kim, she also examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with acquired brain injuries. Their work highlighted the potential of telehealth as a viable and accessible rehabilitation service, particularly due to its ability to overcome geographical barriers and enhance accessibility, especially in rural areas. However, their investigations also shed light on disparities in patient engagement in telehealth. 

Her dissertation, “Examining Key Factors Influencing Engagement in Videoconferencing-Based Telehealth in Individuals with Stroke” aims to thoroughly understand patient engagement in telehealth to make it a reliable and accessible service. This, in turn, will bridge the gap between the demand for continuous rehabilitation and the challenges faced by individuals with stroke in accessing in-person services. As she looks to the future, she aspires to be an independent researcher making substantial contributions to the development of inclusive and effective community-based stroke rehabilitation.

Deaweh Benson is currently a doctoral student in the Developmental Psychology program at the University of Michigan. She investigates racism, health, and healing with a focus on Black adolescents and young adults who experience intersecting marginalized identities (e.g., race, class, gender). Her work is grounded in cultural-ecological frameworks, Black feminist theory, critical consciousness, and positive youth development. Deaweh earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College and her Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has worked in non-profits, research organizations, and academic institutions where she has examined socioemotional development, college student academic success, and the economic security of young adults.

Deaweh’s work broadly pursues three lines of research: (1) Examining the potential neurobiological embedding of structural racism (i.e., brain function and structure), (2) Investigating factors that protect youth from racism exposure (e.g., ethnic-racial identity, critical consciousness, and social support), and (3) Identifying opportunities for healing and transformation despite exposure to structural racism. Her current dissertation entitled, “Development in the Context of Racism: An Exploration of Health Risk and Resilience Among Black Adolescents and Young Adults,” includes three empirical investigations examining how individual-level racism (e.g., racial discrimination) and structural racism (e.g., deadly gun violence, police contact) relate to a range of health outcomes including amygdala function, anxiety, and depression. In this work, Deaweh assesses whether broad sources of social support received from family, peers, romantic partners, and mentors promote resilience despite racism exposure. She also tests whether poverty further compounds disadvantage and constrains opportunities to demonstrate resilience.

Kimberly Williams is a doctoral candidate in the English Department at the University of Florida where her work encompasses Blackness, rhetoric, and sound studies across multimedia and literature. She previously graduated from Virginia Tech (B.S.) and Cornell University (M.F.A.) and claims Virginia as her home. She held previous fellowships with the National Humanities Council, Callaloo Oxford Residency, the Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative, Crisner Museum Fellowship, and the Association for African American Museum Fellowship. You can find her works in Sounding Out! Journal of the Society for American Music, Peitho, Constellations: A Cultural Rhetorics Publishing Space, and more recently Global Black Feminisms: Cross Border Collaboration through an Ethics of Care published by Routledge. She has been awarded the 2022 Ruth McQuown Justice Scholarship, 2019 Virginia Tech Black Excellence Black Student Ally Award and the 2018 Virginia Tech’s Ed McPherson Lifetime Achievement Award for Social Activism & Change.

My research concerns Blackness, sound studies, and rhetoric or more specifically--I study how Black people create sonic testimonies through embodiment, literature, and multimedia studies. In my dissertation, I research how Black communities developed sonic practices across multiple disciplines during the COVID-19 quarantine and simultaneous Black Lives Matter Movement efforts. These examples include the Verzuz battles, Zong digital memorial, and sonic responses to "wokeness."

Yi-jung Wu is a PhD candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, with a doctoral minor in Educational Psychology. Before starting her doctoral studies, she worked as a research assistant, responsible for educational and psychological research projects, and as a middle school mathematics teacher. She is working on her dissertation, "Distributed Leadership Practices According to the Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) in Taiwan’s Elementary Schools." Her research interests include Comparative Educational Administration, Gender Inequality in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Education and Careers, Stratification and Social Mobility, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), International Students, Asian Immigrant Youths, Well-Being, and Mixed/Multi-Methods. Yi-jung holds a B.S. in Mathematics from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, and an M.A. in Educational Leadership from the University of Manchester, UK.