Directors
Director
Nicholas A. Bowman
Bowman is the Mary Louise Petersen Chair in Higher Education, professor of higher education and student affairs, and senior research fellow in the Public Policy Center at the University of Iowa. He received a Ph.D. in psychology and education as well as two master’s degrees in education from the University of Michigan; he also graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles. His research uses a social psychological lens to explore key topics in higher education, including student success, diversity and equity, admissions, rankings, and quantitative research methodology. This work has appeared in 100 peer-reviewed journal articles in outlets such as Review of Educational Research, Educational Researcher, Sociology of Education, Social Psychological and Personality Science, and Science Advances. His scholarly publications have been cited over 10,000 times (per Google Scholar).
Emeritus Director
Ernest T. Pascarella
Pascarella is Professor Emeritus and the former Mary Louise Petersen Endowed Chair in Higher Education at the University of Iowa. His research focuses on the impact of college on students, and he is co-author of the 1991 and 2005 books: How College Affects Students (Vols. 1 and 2). He has received the research awards of such national organizations as the Association for Institutional Research, American Educational Research Association (Division-J), Association for the Study of Higher Education, American College Personnel Association, National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and Council of Independent Colleges. In 1990, he served as president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education and received that association’s Howard R. Bowen Distinguished Career Award in 2003. His recent publications in affiliation with the work of CRUE appear in such outlets as Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Higher Education, and Journal of College Student Development.
Faculty Affiliates
An is Associate Professor of Educational Policy and Leadership Studies at the University of Iowa. He attained a Ph.D. and M.S. in sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research broadly focuses on sociology of education, educational stratification, college choice, college persistence, and degree attainment. More specifically, his research focuses on a sociological tradition that combines the study of educational transitions (e.g., the transition from high school to college) and students’ participation in the stratified curriculum (e.g., high school tracking). His work has appeared in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Social Science Research, Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, and other top outlets.
Barnhardt is Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs at the University of Iowa. She holds her Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Michigan, a Master’s in Student Affairs from Michigan State University, and two bachelor’s degrees also from the University of Michigan. Cassie’s research focuses on various aspects of civic and public engagement including how college students learn about and enact social responsibility, and how universities, as organizations, contribute to democracy and civic life. Cassie has published in Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, Review of Higher Education, among others. Some of her work has been pursued with financial support from the John Templeton Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Cassie teaches graduate courses on the administration of student affairs, organizational behavior and management in postsecondary institutions, and research methods.
Broton is Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs at the University of Iowa. She attained a Ph.D. and M.S. in Sociology and a B.S. in Sociology and Afro American Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research broadly focuses on sociology of education, social stratification, and education policy. She uses multiple methods to examine the role of poverty and inequality in higher education as well as policies and programs designed to minimize related disparities and promote college success. Her work has appeared in Educational Researcher, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, The New York Times, and Wisconsin Public Television, among others. The National Science Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Lumina Foundation, and others have supported her research. She teaches graduate courses on research methods, finance in higher education, and higher education policy.
Linley is Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs at the University of Iowa. She holds a Ph.D. in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education from Michigan State University and has more than a decade of full-time student affairs and academic affairs leadership experience. Dr. Linley’s research has far-reaching practical implications broadly focused on minoritized collegians’ experiences, supports, and success. More specifically, she studies college student meaning-making about campus climate and campus diversity messaging; higher education socialization and the agents charged with enacting socialization; and she is co-PI of multiple research studies focused on LGBTQ+ college student success. Her publications are featured in the Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of Homosexuality, Journal of Student Affairs Research & Practice, New Directions for Student Services, among others. At Iowa, Dr. Linley teaches master’s and doctoral courses on college students and their development, teaching and learning in higher education, and critical qualitative research methods.
Graduate Researchers 2022-2023
Sabrina Ahmed
sabrina-ahmed@uiowa.edu
Sabrina Ahmed (she/her) is a first-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her research interests include international student experience, higher education curriculum, policy, and issues in international higher education.
Mohammad Al-Ansari
mohammad-al-ansari@uiowa.edu
ohammad Al-Ansari (he/him) is a second-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. His research interests include the purpose of higher education, students’ aspirations, and motivations for pursuing a college degree, and the development of education policy in Qatar.
Carly Armour
carly-armour@uiowa.edu
Carly Armour (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her research interests focus on the experiences of undergraduate and graduate students with dis/abilities including students who are multiply minoritized, and how the inequities in higher education systems can transformed towards authentic inclusion.
Katie Buell
kathleen-buell@uiowa.edu
Katie Buell (she/her) is a first-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her research interests include trauma in higher education, critical exploration of student affairs professional practice, and qualitative research methods in education.
Celine D. Fender
celine-fender@uiowa.edu
Celine D. Fender (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her research interests include mothers in academia, trends in international higher education and student mobility, and activism among student-athletes.
Solomon Fenton-Miller
solomon-fenton-miller@uiowa.edu
Solomon Fenton-Miller (he/him) is a third-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. His interests include online teaching and learning, technology within the classroom, and research methodology for policy analysis.
Simona Flores
simona-flores@uiowa.edu
Simona Flores (she/her) is a second-year master’s student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. She is involved in research surrounding the visual analysis of peer-socialization agents.
Mavis Gyesi
mavis-gyesi@uiowa.edu
Mavis Gyesi (she/her) is a second-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her research lies at the intersection of global and critical social theory, postcolonial theory, African diaspora studies, race and ethnicity, sociology of education and sociology of immigration. Her central line of research interest centers on college access, choice, Black African immigrant students’ educational preparedness, and alignment of post-secondary expectations.
Lauren Irwin
lauren-irwin@uiowa.edu
Lauren Irwin (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her research uses critical theories of race, racialization, and whiteness and organizational perspectives to interrogate and disrupt whiteness in higher education contexts, including leadership education programs.
Lindsay Jarratt
lindsay-jarratt@uiowa.edu
Lindsay Jarratt (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the Schools, Culture, and Society program at the University of Iowa. Her research interests focus on the role educational systems play in the production and maintenance of social dominance, implicit and explicit negotiation of power and ownership in learning ecologies, and capacities of education to resist or transform systems of oppression.
Jeongmin Ji
jeongmin-ji@uiowa.edu
Jeongmin Ji (she/her) is a student in the Educational Measurement and Statistics Ph.D. program. Her current research interests include measurement invariance, latent variable modeling, causal inference, and analysis of curricula/admission policies.
Hee Kyoung Jung
heekyoung-jung@uiowa.edu
Hee Kyoung Jung (she/her) is a first-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her research interest is to explore underrepresented and/or minority college students and their college experiences while focusing on their identities and institutional and systemic constraints they face.
Sam Kaser
samuel-kaser@uiowa.edu
Sam Kaser (he/him) is a second-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. His research interests include student access, experience, and success, particularly at small colleges, and quantitative methods in educational research.
Shinji Katsumoto
shinji-katsumoto@uiowa.edu
Shinji Katsumoto (he/him) is a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education and Student Affairs Ph.D. program and a graduate researcher at CRUE. His research focuses on student success and world university rankings in the international education context. His recent studies examine how college experiences of international students in the United States influence their psychological and academic outcomes.
Jeff Ching-Fan Lai
ching-fan-lai@uiowa.edu
Jeff Ching-Fan Lai (he/him) is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. His research interests include college students’ understanding of civics/democracy, engaged scholars, student activism, community engagement, and navigating/facilitating difficult dialogues.
Gordon Louie
gordon-louie@uiowa.edu
Gordon Louie (he/him) is a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education and Student Affairs doctoral program. His research interests are on campus internationalization efforts in the U.S., skills and practices for navigating difficult dialogues, and gamification as well as gaming environments broadly in higher education.
Lisa Nakahara
lisa-nakahara@uiowa.edu
Lisa Nakahara (she/her) is a third-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her research interests are on women and science in higher education, as well as campus internationalization efforts in non-English speaking countries.
Maria-Victoria Perez
maria-victoria-perez@uiowa.edu
Maria-Victoria Perez (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her research agenda seeks to unsettle the false and socially constructed division between mental health and disability to foster justice and inclusion for students.
Claire Peters
claire-peters@uiowa.edu
Claire Peters (she/they) is a first-year master’s student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her research interest is in identity development, student leaders, and LGBTQ+ student experiences.
Man Phan
man-phan@uiowa.edu
Man Phan (she/her) is a second-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her research interests include international student mobility, student success, and issues in international higher education.
Ying Qian
ying-qian@uiowa.edu
Ying Qian (she/her) is a first-year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her current research interests include international students’ engagement, leadership competency, and acculturation.
Nicholas R. Stroup
nicholas-stroup@uiowa.edu
Nicholas R. Stroup (he/him) is a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program and a graduate researcher for CRUE. His topical research interests include graduate and professional schools, global contexts of higher education, and theories of student socialization. He uses both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in approaching questions about graduate education phenomena.
Nikki Tennessen
nicole-tennessen@uiowa.edu
Nikki Tennessen (she/her) is a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program. Her research interests include institutional research and assessment, how institutions use data to inform decision-making, and information ethics. She specializes in quantitative methods, including longitudinal and multi-level modeling, survey methods, and secondary analysis of large, nationally representative datasets.