Emily Reich

Emily Reich (she/her) is a first-year doctoral student in the Policy, Politics, and Leadership cluster in the School of Education. She comes to graduate school with questions about the ways in which bureaucracy and the school staff who wield it shape the educational lives of marginalized and minitoritized students.

Emily received a BS in Special Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010. She holds credentials to teach Special Education to students in kindergarten through age twenty-one in California and Wisconsin. Before coming to Berkeley, Emily spent many years as a classroom teacher in California and Israel, where she holds a provisional teaching license. Emily was a recipient of the Helen J. Diller Center Grant for her work on her master's capstone in Jerusalem.

Emily is working with Dr. Moonhawk Kim, the director of research-practice partnerships and the Oakland Unified School District on a project using qualitative methods to capture the experiences of new teachers. Emily is also currently a graduate student researcher working with Professor Bruce Fuller and the Public Policy Institute of California on a project aimed at understanding how the infusion of federal and state COVID relief funding altered school budgets and functioning. Both of these projects allow Emily to use her growing knowledge of qualitative methods to better understand issues of educational policy.

Emily is a co-founder of the School of Education Graduate Coalition (SEGC), a graduate student organization focused on improving the student experience at the BSE. She currently serves as the student representative on the curriculum and teaching committee. Emily is a fluent Hebrew speaker and student of colloquial Arabic.