Other Projects
COVID & Postsecondary Philanthropy
COVID-19 has upset daily routines and impacted communities throughout the world. In the midst of a pandemic disproportionately infecting and killing Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities, the murder of George Floyd has renewed attention to the U.S. Movement for Black Lives (MBL). Leading up to this moment, there has been a growing recognition amongst educational philanthropists that the field’s historical disengagement from racial justice has led foundations to reproduce rather than disrupt inequalities. In collaboration with Dr. Krystal Villanosa and Claire Mackevicius, I am conducting a longitidunal interview study across seven private foundations, which we will pair with IRS financial data. In this study we ask: 1) whether and how foundations’ prior commitments to supporting racial equity are changing, advancing, or declining; and 2) whether and how grantmakers connect these commitments to organizational routines and practices, and how these connections vary over time.
Racialized Change Work
Using recent work on racialized organizations from sociology, critical theories of race, and neo-institutional theory, this theory-building project addresses the role of grantmakers in dismantling or reproducing inequalities. In doing so we develop a new construct—racialized change work—to refer to the purposive action that organizations take to build new, equitable organizational arrangements or tear down old, inequitable ones. We develop quantifiable and testable propositions for how racialized change work might spread (adoption), how it might stick (institutionalization), and what effects it may have on producing equitable outcomes (impact). We build these propositions in the context of GMOs in U.S. higher education policy and demonstrate their portability across areas of public policy and administration. Access the paper, currently under review, here.
(E)Quality Politics and Racial Retrenchment in Federal Postsecondary Policy
In collaboration with Dr. Quinn Mulroy, this project analyzes over 6,000 archival documents from legislative hearings and administrative reports to chart the political development (1968-1999) of a federal agency tasked with reducing postsecondary inequality. We use this case as a window into the actors and processes that settled the terms of federal involvement in U.S. higher education over time. In doing so we generate a new theoretical model for how political actors shore up white power and privilege following access expansions. Working paper will be posted once under review in December 2020.
Bridging Research and Practice
As an equity researcher, I believe it is critical to contribute to a more just future by bridging research and practice. To this end, I maintain active partnerships with many policymakers and practitioners. One such partnership involving grantmakers at the Kresge Foundation and Grantmakers for Education produced an article, "Moving the Needle or Spinning Our Wheels? A Framework for Long-Lasting, Equitable Change in Education" published in the Foundation Review.
Student Affairs Research
Early on in my higher education career, I was a student affairs professional and researcher. Check out some of my prior work to this end including my study on equity and performance based budgeting implementation in student affairs published in the Journal of Student Affairs Research & Practice and a piece on intersectional practice in the College Student Affairs Journal.
