Travis J. Bristol is an associate professor of teacher education and education policy in Berkeley’s School of Education and (bycourtesy) the Department of African American Studies. Before joining Berkeley's faculty, he was a Peter Paul Assistant Professor at Boston University. Using qualitative methods, Dr. Bristol explores three related research strands: (1) the role of educational policies in shaping teacher workplace experiences and retention; (2) district and school-based...
Derek Van Rheenen’s research interests include the cultural studies of sport, nature sports, sport tourism, ecopedagogy, the connections between sports, learning and schooling, and the role of intercollegiate athletics in the American university system. A former Academic All-American and professional soccer player, Van Rheenen teaches courses on sport, culture, and education. In 1998 he received the Outstanding Dissertation Award in the School of Education, UC Berkeley. Professor Van Rheenen has also been named a Chancellor's Public Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley....
Jose Eos Trinidad is an Assistant Professor in the Policy, Politics, and Leadership cluster of the University of California Berkeley School of Education. He is a sociologist with expertise in the study of organizations outside schools and the study of schools as organizations. He received his Joint PhD in Sociology and Comparative Human Development from The University of Chicago.
His research explores how organizations affect school improvement and inequalities, education policy, and institutional change. Conceptually, he focuses on organizational networks and institutional theory....
Tolani Britton uses quasi-experimental methods to explore the impact of policies on students’ transition from secondary school to higher education, as well as access and retention in higher education. Recent work explores whether the disproportionate increase in incarceration of Black males for drug possessions and manufacture increased gaps in college enrollment rates by race and gender over two time periods- after the passage of the Anti-Drug Act from 1986 - 1993 and after the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act from 1995 - 2000.
Dr. Gina Ann Garcia is a professor at Berkeley School of Education exploring issues of equity and justice in higher education. As an organizational theorist, she seeks to understand how Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) enact an organizational identity for serving Latine/x students and minoritized populations. She draws on qualitative methods including case studies, interviews, observations, and participatory research methods to explore how organizations change from predominately white to minoritized-serving. Dr. Garcia also examines the experiences of administrators, faculty, and staff...
Bruce Fuller, a sociologist, delves into how institutions, large and small, attempt to lift the learning and growth of children, including why they often fall short.
This implicates surrounding ideologies and politics that move organizations to do better. His new book -- When Schools Work-- delves into why student achievement climbed for nearly two decades in Los Angeles, and how a colorful quilt of civic activists powered a variety of reforms. The...
Ja’Nya is a second year PhD student in the Education Policy, Politics and Leadership cluster. She is a proud East Coast native, raised in the “DMV”: DC, Maryland, Virginia region. She started her career as a Special Education Teacher and case manager, eventually transitioning into roles around youth mentorship, and race and identity facilitation for educators.
As a practitioner and researcher she is interested in understanding communal ties amongst school based stakeholders (parents, students and teachers) during the plight of policy shifts. She looks at opportunities for shift in...
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...
Eric Assan (He/Him) is a 1st year Master's degree student in the Policy, Politics, and Leadership cluster in the School of Education. He is also pursuing a graduate certificate in Applied Data Science. He is an awardee of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, a fully funded scholarship program for African students and the first Education student to be awarded this scholarship. Prior to joining the BSE, Eric received an MEd in Educational Management from Huzhou University, China in 2022 and graduated with a Bachelor's of Social Sciences Education at the University of Cape Coast...
Hoyun Kim is a PhD student in the Policy, Politics, and Leadership cluster at the School of Education. Her research interests lie in the experiences of students in higher education and examining postsecondary institutions as organizations: topics pertaining to student agency, equity, accessibility of higher education, and the behavior and incentives of postsecondary institutions. More broadly, she aims to understand and reason the purpose and power of higher education through her work.
Her interests are informed by her experiences attending different forms of public schools in the...