WASHINGTON – Dawn G. Williams, PhD, dean of the Howard University School of Education, has been named to The Education Trust’s inaugural national P-12 Research Advisory Council (RAC). As states and districts assist student recovery from unfinished learning and school staffing shortages, the RAC will assemble leading education researchers to analyze and understand the impacts on student learning and well-being. The advisory council will advise Ed Trust’s research agenda on teaching and curriculum at a time when multiple states are implementing policies that restrict the teaching of the honest history and experiences of Black and Latino students. The work of the RAC will inform Ed Trust’s research and policy agendas designed to address complex and pressing issues in education and ensure that funding is spent effectively and equitably. 

“The Education Trust is a leader in advocacy towards educational equity. It is an honor to be included with these scholar activists and collectively work to increase access and opportunity in order to empower culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse learners,” said Williams. 

“We are thrilled to bring together some of the leading minds in academia to help shape Ed Trust’s work to improve student opportunity, outcomes, and justice,” said Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos, PhD, director of P-12 research at Education Trust. “I’m excited to collaborate with the advisory council to tackle some of the most crucial policy issues currently facing our nation’s public education system.” 

The RAC members are preeminent international scholars and academics from leading universities who conduct groundbreaking, equity-based research. They will provide insight on educational landscapes to identify specific equity-based research projects that can deepen and expand the work on Ed Trust’s P-12 priority areas of educator diversity, school funding, early childhood education, assessment and accountability, social-emotional and academic development, and college and career readiness. In addition, there will be opportunities for members of the advisory board to collaborate on research projects and publications. 

The RAC Membership is a one-year appointment with the possibility to serve for up to three years. They will officially begin during a convening in Washington D.C. on March 6, 2023.  

The inaugural members of the advisory council are: 

Alfredo J. Artiles, PhD, Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Director of the Research Institute, Stanford Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University   

Sonya Douglass, PhD, Professor and Founding Director of the Black Education Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University 

Michael Feuer, PhD, Dean and Professor of Education Policy at The Graduate School of Education and Human Development, George Washington University   

Vivian L. Gadsden, PhD, the William T. Carter Professor of Child Development and Education and Faculty Director, Penn Early Childhood and Family Research Center, University of Pennsylvania  

Eugene García, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University, and former U.S. Department of Education Title VII Director  

Ofelia García, PhD, Professor Emerita and founding co-principal investigator of the CUNY-New York State Initiative for Emergent Bilinguals at The Graduate Center, The City University of New York (CUNY)  

Kris D. Gutiérrez, PhD, Carol Liu Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean at the Berkeley School of Education, University of California, Berkeley 

Tyrone C. Howard, PhD, Professor and Director of the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools at the School of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles 

Gloria Ladson-Billings, PhD, Professor Emerita and Kellner Family professor of Urban Education at the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison  

H. Richard Milner IV, PhD, Professor of Education and Sociology and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Education at the College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University  

Pedro Reyes, PhD, Ashbel Smith Professor of Education Leadership & Policy and Executive Director of the Texas Education Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin 

Dawn G. Williams, PhD, Dean and Professor at the School of Education, Howard University  

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