Panel: Federal Funding Inequality and Higher Education Politics and Policy-Making
Panel Description
This panel will feature two experts on federal higher education policy. The panel will feature a discussion about the federal government’s history and role in addressing equity in higher education. Moving from history into the present day, there will also be a discussion about the structure of the federal government, how the federal government can use its authority to promote equity in higher education, and how advocates can use knowledge about how the government works to inform and advocate for improving equity.
Panelists Bios
Adam Harris is a staff writer at The Atlantic covering education and national politics, and the author of The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal — and How to Set Them Right (2021), a narrative history of racial inequality in higher education. Before joining the Atlantic, Mr. Harris was a reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education where he covered federal education policy and historically black colleges and universities. Mr. Harris also worked at ProPublica. His writing has appeared in BBC, Bleacher Report, and EBONY Magazine, and he is a frequent guest on CBS News, MSNBC, and radio stations across the country.
Rebecca Natow is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at Hofstra University. She is an expert on higher education policy and has conducted extensive research on the U.S. Department of Education’s rulemaking process, performance-based funding for higher education, federal higher education policymaking, technology use in postsecondary developmental education, and research utilization in the creation of federal regulations. Her research and teaching focus on higher education law and policy, federal education policy processes, qualitative research methods, and higher education leadership. Dr. Natow’s newest book, Reexamining the Federal Role in Higher Education: Politics and Policymaking in the Postsecondary Sector, was published by Teachers College Press in January 2022. She is also sole author of the book, Higher Education Rulemaking: The Politics of Creating Regulatory Policy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017), a coauthor on two books about performance-based funding for higher education, and an author or co-author of numerous scholarly articles, commentaries, and research reports. Dr. Natow received her Ed.D., Ed.M., and M.A. in higher and postsecondary education from Teachers College, Columbia University and her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
Sosanya Jones, Associate Professor, Higher Education Leadership & Policy Studies, Howard University. Dr. Jones has almost twenty years of experience as an administrator, researcher, and educator in higher education. She teaches courses in higher education policy, governance, diversity and equity, and advanced qualitative methods. Her research interests focus on the nexus between policy and practice for diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education.