Jude Paul Matias Dizon, Ph.D., is a proud first-generation college student and son of Filipino postal service workers. Currently, Jude Paul is an assistant professor of higher education and student affairs in the Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University. His research agenda examines the carceral university, or the relationship between the carceral state and higher education with a focus on race, class, and gender inequities. He has been involved in the national Cops Off Campus movement and is co-editor of a forthcoming interdisciplinary volume on campus policing (University of Washington Press).

Wesley Henry is an Assistant Professor of educational leadership and policy at Central Connecticut State University. Wesley began his career as a public high school teacher in the School District of Philadelphia. He earned his Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy studies from the University of Washington. During his doctoral studies, Wesley worked as a university administrator and ended his time at the University of Washington as the Director of Academic Program Review and Strategic Initiatives for the Graduate School. Prior to joining the faculty at Central Connecticut, Wesley was the founding faculty member for the principal preparation program at California State University Monterey Bay. Wesley’s research interests are rooted in better understanding educator preparation, the role professional learning can play in setting organizational dynamics within educational settings, and the role of school and community leaders in equity-focused school improvement and community development. 

Brian Holzman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Human Resource Development at Texas A&M University. From a sociological perspective, his research examines the pathway from middle school to and through college, paying particular attention to educational equity and structural barriers among first- and second-generation immigrants, English learners, students of color, and students from socioeconomically marginalized backgrounds. He also has a strong interest in causal inference, treatment effect heterogeneity, and policies and interventions that can reduce gaps between groups.

Dr. Holzman has received grant funding from the Brady Education Foundation ($50K, PI) to study schools serving recent immigrant English learners and the National Science Foundation to implement a text messaging intervention aimed to facilitate parent-child engagement ($300K, co-PI). His research has been published in Research in Higher Education, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and more than a dozen research reports released by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University. D

r. Holzman is an affiliate of the Program in Education Policy at the Bush School of Government & Public Service and the Latino/a & Mexican American Studies Program in the Department of Sociology. He was a Scholar-in-Residence at the University of California-Davis Center for Poverty Research in 2020-2021. At Texas A&M University, Dr. Holzman teaches graduate courses in quantitative methods, program evaluation, and education policy.

Before entering the professoriate, Dr. Holzman worked as a postdoctoral fellow and a research scientist at Rice University’s Houston Education Research Consortium, a practitioner-oriented research center that collaborated with local school districts. He completed an M.A. in Sociology and a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education and Higher Education Administration at Stanford University. 

Chukwuemeka (Emeka is pronounced “Eh-meh-ka”) Ikegwuonu is an Assistant Professor at St. Cloud State University in the Higher Education and Administration program. Professor Ikegwuonu earned his Educational Policy and Evaluation doctorate from Arizona State University. Dr. Emeka is a quantitative researcher investigating internal and external influences on higher education institutions and their implications on student behavior. Professor Ikegwuonu’s current research focuses on higher education institutions and their impact on retention and affordability. Drawing upon quantitative analytic strategies and other interdisciplinary frameworks, he examines how internal and external factors impact institutional policies that impact students daily. 

Vanessa Miller, J.D., Ph.D. is the Postdoctoral Associate at the Race and Crime Center for Justice (RCCJ) at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Her research broadly focuses on race, racism, and the intersection of education law and the criminal legal system. She is primarily interested in addressing the prevalence of police in schools and universities as well as expanding access to educational programs and services in juvenile detention centers and correctional facilities. She is particularly interested in centering the experiences of Latina girls and women. She is also interested in legislative initiatives that attempt to restrict race in the curriculum. Prior to joining the RCCJ, Dr. Miller was an associate at an education law firm in California where she focused on employee discipline. Starting August 2023, Dr. Miller will join the faculty at Indiana University Bloomington as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies. She received her J.D. and Ph.D. in from The Pennsylvania State University, her M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University, and her B.A. from the University of Florida. She is originally from Miami, Florida, and is the proud daughter of Cuban immigrants.

Vanessa A. Sansone is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Her areas of research interest focus on understanding college affordability, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and power structures & governance on the trajectories, experiences, and opportunities of historically underserved students. Dr. Sansone’s empirical work has been presented at several national conferences and published in such outlets as the Review of Higher Education, Review of Educational Research and New Directions for Student Development Services. Additionally, she has contributed policy briefs, book chapters, book reviews and web-based writings.

In 2020, she was named as one of the 35 most outstanding women in higher education by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine. She has been recognized by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) and the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education (TACHE) as a top Latina graduate scholar. She has also been nationally selected as a Faculty Fellow with the Rutgers Graduate School of Education’s Center for Minority Serving Institutions, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Institute in Critical Quantitative, Computational, and Mixed Methodologies (ICQCM). Most recently, she was nationally selected as the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) Dr. José A. Cárdenas School Finance Fellow where she studied higher education finance among Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Texas.

She currently serves as the Director of Policy for the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges (ARRC), and as the elected Member-at-Large on the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Council on Public Policy in Higher Education (CPPHE). She holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in Higher Education from UTSA, a Master of Education degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies with an emphasis in Higher Education Administration from UTSA, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from St. Mary’s University, San Antonio.

Meredith S. Billings is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at Sam Houston State University. Her overall research agenda focuses on financial and informational barriers to college and inequities in higher education funding. She is currently conducting or has conducted research projects on free college/promise programs, guaranteed tuition/fixed tuition plans, college access programs, and financial aid advising in public high schools. Dr. Billings is also interested in state higher education funding decisions during economic downturns and how state policymakers justify their decisions on how to fund institutions and students during these times. She has published her research in New Directions for Institutional Research, New Directions for Community Colleges, Journal of General Education, and she has upcoming articles in the Journal of Student Financial Aid and American Behavioral Scientist. Her work has been supported by the Spencer Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.

Dr. Billings spent six years working in higher education administration in the areas of institutional research, undergraduate admissions, academic advising, and civic engagement. She is currently the Chair of the Council on Public Policy in Higher Education (CPPHE), one of the four councils of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). Dr. Billings teaches courses on higher education policy and governance, higher education finance, program evaluation, assessment, and statistics. She earned a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Michigan, M.A. in higher education from the University of Maryland, and B.S. in neuroscience from William and Mary.

Vincent D. Carales is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies at the University of Houston. He is primarily interested in broadening our understanding of the experiences and educational outcomes of first generation, Latina/o, low-income and community college students. He is also interested in studying how these outcomes intersect with federal, state, and institutional policies related to diversity, equity, and college affordability. He holds an E.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio, an M.Ed. in Counseling & Guidance/Student Affairs from Texas State University, and a B.A. in Mass Communication from Texas State University.

Dr. Sosanya Jones is an assistant professor of Leadership and Policy Studies at Howard University where she teaches courses on governance, higher education policy, and qualitative research. Her research interests focus on the nexus between policy and practice for diversity, equity, and inclusion. In particular, her work draws upon the practical knowledge and voices of policy makers and institutional practitioners in order to glean insight about policy formation, adoption, and implementation and its connection to the implementation of equity, diversity and inclusion efforts. Dr. Jones’ research has appeared in The American Behavioral Scientist, RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, & Interest Groups and Advocacy. A 2015-2016 Fulbright Visiting Chair (Canada) and a 2016-2018 Illinois Education Research Council Faculty Fellow, Dr. Jones currently serves as an executive member of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE)’s Council for Public Policy in Higher Education (CPPHE).

Dr. Karley Riffe is Assistant Professor & Program Coordinator of the Higher Education Administration Program at Auburn University. Her research uses qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the interrelationships between higher education institutions, those who work within them, and the external environment as they affect institutional mission fulfillment. Dr. Riffe has published on the organization and governance of colleges and universities and worked on several grant projects that addressed the administration and decision-making processes within and across colleges and universities.

Dr. Riffe’s work centers around the idea that the collective decisions, actions, and work of individuals within colleges and universities form the foundation of organizational change. Specifically, her work examines the changing academic profession, the influence of university trustees, the roles of support staff members, and updated notions of shared governance across diverse institutional contexts.

Raquel Muñiz, J.D., Ph.D. is in her third year as an assistant professor of law and education policy at the Boston College Lynch School of Education and Human Development and as a liaison with Boston College Law. She is an attorney and a social science researcher who studies how education law and policy can create more equitable educational opportunities for all students, particularly students who have experienced substantial adversity. Her research focuses on the examination of the implications of law and policy on the education system and public policy decision-making; and on the use of social science research evidence in the legal system and public policy decision-making process. This research interest has led Muñiz to study laws and policies that contribute to the educational experience of different children, youth, and young adult populations. During her J.D. studies, she participated in the Children’s Advocacy Clinic—where she helped efforts toward the establishment of Fostering Lions, a program designed to help foster youth at Penn State and help prepare them for lifelong success—and in the Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic—where she conducted a research study that examined the experiences of lawyers and law students who hold DACA status under the Trump administration. More recently, her work has examined the professional development of joint degree students in law and education (published in the Journal of Law and Education), as well as the value of a law degree for Latinx students across the U.S. work, work supported by the AccessLex/AIR and Spencer Foundations. As a faculty member, she teaches courses on education law and public policy, and co-coordinates the Boston College joint degrees in law and education.

CJ Ryan, JD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law and an affiliated scholar at the American Bar Foundation.
Dr. Ryan teaches Property, Wills & Trusts, Federal Income Tax, Law & Economics, and Statistics for Lawyers. In addition to writing in the doctrinal areas in which he teaches, much of his research centers on corporate governance, the legal profession, the economics of higher education, and technology transfer. An interdisciplinary scholar, he has written 20 articles that have appeared in law reviews—such as the Alabama Law Review, Illinois Law Review, and SMU Law Review—specialty journals at NYU, Georgetown, and Notre Dame, and peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Legal Education and Research in Higher Education. He is a recognized expert in legal education, trust law, and non-profit law, and his scholarship has been discussed in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Above the Law, and Inside Higher Ed, among other media outlets. Dr. Ryan’s published and working papers can be found at his SSRN page.
He received an A.B. from Dartmouth College, a M.Ed. from the University of Notre Dame, a J.D. from the University of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. When he is not teaching, researching, or spending time with his family, he enjoys running, cycling, hot yoga, live music, and college football.