Scholarship and Background

I am an associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Nevada, Reno, an “R1” state flagship located on the homelands of the Paiute and Washoe peoples. At UNR, I am the director of our graduate programs (Ph.D., Ed.D., and M.A.) in Higher Education Administration. Prior to entering academia, I was a college guidance counselor at The MET high school in Providence, Rhode Island.

My research agenda—which includes an award-winning book, numerous articles and chapters, and funding from the Spencer Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities—focuses on policy, governance, and conflict in higher education. Using archival research methods and drawing on theory from organizational sociology, my work explains how the state, third-sector organizations, and colleges and universities themselves have contested and negotiated questions about the form and purposes of undergraduate education. My scholarship has significant implications for both policymakers and the people toward whom higher education policy is directed, including institutional leaders, associations, faculty, and students. It also underlies my teaching expertise in the social foundations of higher education, leadership studies, and organizational studies. 

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