Supporting Public Policy Engagement for Tenure-Stream Faculty of Color

In Short

• Colleges and universities can do more to support engagement in public policymaking among faculty of color.

• Institutional support for public policy engagement among faculty of color would increase the representation of people of color in policymaking settings and advance institutional goals (magnifying their impact and creating new opportunities for partnerships and funding).

• Recommendations for institutions to better support faculty of color’s policy engagement include formally valuing policy engagement, offering institutional support and protection from the consequences of public policy engagement, and providing resources for such engagement.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Victoria Kim

Victoria Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research interests focus on examining the inequitable structures in P-20 settings and studying educational programs, practices, and policies including Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) that can shape the experiences of racially and ethnically minoritized students. Dr. Kim received her Ph.D. in Social Sciences and Comparative Education with a specialization in Race/Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Denisa Gándara

Dr. Denisa Gándara is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines higher education policy and finance. She is a William T. Grant Scholar and a Ford Foundation Fellow. Her research has been funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, the Ford Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among other sources. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Higher Education. Denisa earned a PhD from the University of Georgia.

Catherine Ramirez

Catherine Ramirez is a doctoral student in the Program in Higher Education Leadership at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests center policies impacting educational access and equity for former foster care students in higher education.

Navdeep Kaur

Navdeep Kaur is a PhD student at the University of Otago who studies how culture and social cognition interact—specifically, how social and environmental changes transform religious beliefs over time. She is also interested in studying policies through a gender lens. Her interest in psychological research took shape while building forts with her father, negotiating over French fries with her brother, and listening to the “stories of gods” by her mom.

Michaela Jones

Michaela Jones is a Postbaccalaureate Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin Population Research Center. In May 2021, she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a minor in Women’s Studies from Loyola University in New Orleans. During her undergrad, she was an active member of her campus community through her work within various organizations. Her research interests focus on mental health stigmas within the Black community and broadly within communities of color. Through her research, she aims to encourage more people of color to receive mental healthcare and improve access to and the quality of the care being administered.