Estela Mara Bensimon

Estela Mara Bensimon is Dean’s Professor in Educational Equity at USC Rossier School of Education and Director of the Center for Urban Education, which she founded in 1999. With a singular focus on increasing racial equity in higher education outcomes for students of color, she developed the Equity Scorecard—a process for using inquiry to drive changes in institutional practice and culture. Since its founding, CUE has worked with thousands of college professionals—from presidents to faculty to academic counselors, helping them take steps in their daily work to reverse the impact of the historical and structural disadvantages that prevent many students of color from excelling in higher education. The innovative Equity Scorecard process takes a strengths-based approach starting from the premise that faculty and administrators are committed to doing “the good.” CUE builds upon this premise by developing tools and processes that empower these professionals as “researchers” into their own practices, with the ultimate goal of not just marginal changes in policy or practice, but shifts on those campuses towards cultures of inclusion and broad ownership over racial equity.

Professor Bensimon’s critical action research agenda has been supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Teagle Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and  The James Irvine Foundation.

Dr. Bensimon has published extensively about equity, organizational learning, practitioner inquiry and change; and her articles have appeared in journals such as the Review of Higher Education, Journal of Higher Education, Liberal Education, and Harvard Educational Review.   Her most recent books include Critical Approaches to the Study of Higher Education (co-edited with Ana Martinez-Aleman and Brian Pusser) which was selected as the 2016 Outstanding Publication by the American Education Research Association, Division of Postsecondary Education; Engaging the Race Question:  Accountability and Equity in US Higher Education (with Alicia C. Dowd),  Confronting Equity Issues on Campus: Implementing the Equity Scorecard in Theory and Practice (co-edited with Lindsey Malcom).

Dr. Bensimon has held the highest leadership positions in the Association for the Study of Higher Education (President, 2005-2006) and in the American Education Research Association, Division on Postsecondary Education (Vice-President, 1992-1994). She has served on the boards of the American Association for Higher Education and the Association of American Colleges and Universities. She was the Chair of AERA’s Social Justice and Action Committee. In 2010 the University of Wisconsin system awarded Dr. Bensimon with a 2010 Outstanding Women of Color in Education Award. In 2011, she was inducted as an AERA Fellow in recognition of excellence in research and received ASHE’s Council on Ethnic Participation Founders Service Award. In 2013 she received the Association for the Study of Higher Education Research Achievement Award. She is a recipient of the USC Mellon Mentoring Award for faculty and Distinguished Service Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education.  In 2015 she received the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) Outstanding Latina Faculty Award for Research & Teaching.

In 2017, she was elected to the National Academy of Education and she was presented with the 2017 Social Justice in Education Award by the American Education Research Association.

Dr. Bensimon was associate dean of the USC Rossier School of Education from 1996-2000 and was a Fulbright Scholar to Mexico in 2002. She earned her doctorate in higher education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

• Elected to the National Academy of Education
• AERA Social Justice in Education Award
• AAHHE Outstanding Latina Faculty Award for Research & Teaching
• USC Mellon Mentoring Award for faculty
• ASHE Distinguished Service Award
• The University of Wisconsin's Outstanding Women of Color in Education Award
• USC's Mellon Award for Excellence in Mentoring
• The Association for the Study of Higher Education's Service Award

• Center for Urban Education. (2017). Pathways, Partnerships, and Progress: Transforming a Community College. Los Angeles: Center for Urban Education, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California.
• Center for Urban Education. (2017). Improving Postsecondary Attainment: Overcoming Common Challenges to an Equity Agenda in State Policy. Los Angeles: Center for Urban Education, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California.
• Center for Urban Education. (2017). Improving Attainment: Making Equity Part of Your State’s Postsecondary Planning. Los Angeles: Center for Urban Education, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California.
• Center for Urban Education. (2017). Protocol for Assessing Equity-Mindedness in State Policy. Los Angeles: Center for Urban Education, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California.
• Bensimon, E. M., Dowd, A. C., Witham, K. (2016). Five principles for enacting equity by design. Diversity and Democracy, The Equity Imperative. Winter 2016, Volume 19, No 1.
• Witham, K., Malcom-Piqueux, L. E., Dowd, A. C., & Bensimon, E. M. (2015). America’s Unmet Promise: The Imperative for Equity in Higher Education. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.
• Chase, M. M., Bensimon, E. M., Shieh, L. T., Jones, T., & Dowd, A. C. (2013). Constraints and opportunities for practitioner agency in STEM programs in Hispanic serving community colleges. In R. T. Palmer & J. L. Wood (Eds.), Community Colleges and STEM: Examining Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minorities (pp. 172-192). New York: Routledge.
• Dowd, A. C., Pak, J. H., & Bensimon, E. M. (2013). The role of institutional agents in promoting transfer access. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 21(15). Retrieved February 27, 2013, from http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/1187 . This article is part of EPAA/AAPE’s Special Issue on The American Community College in the 21st Century, Guest Edited by Dr. Jeanne M. Powers and Amelia M. Topper.
• Dowd, A. C., Sawatzky, M., Rall, R. M., & Bensimon, E. M. (2012). Action research: An essential practice for Twenty-First Century assessment. In R. T. Palmer, D. C. Maramba & M. Gasman (Eds.), Fostering success of ethnic and racial minorities in STEM: The role of Minority Serving Institutions. New York: Routledge.
• Bensimon, E.M (2012) The equity scorecard: Theory of change. In E. M. Bensimon & L. E. Malcolm (Eds.), Confronting Equity Issues on Campus. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
• Bensimon, E. M., & Bishop, R. (2012) "Why "Critical"? The Need for New Ways of Knowing.. In E. M. Bensimon & R. Bishop (Eds.), "The Review of Higher Education: A Special Issue: Critical Perspectives on Race and Equity." (Vol. 36): Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Bensimon, E. M., & Bishop, R. (Eds.).(2012) "The Review of Higher Education: A Special Issue: Critical Perspectives on Race and Equity." (Fall 2012 ed. Vol. 36, No. 1, Supplement): Johns Hopkins University Press
• Bensimon, E. M., & Chase, M. M. "Equity Scorecard for Higher Education." Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education. Ed. James A. Banks. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2012. 813-17. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 10 Jul. 2012.
• Bensimon, E. M., Dowd, A. C., Longanecker, D., & Witham, K. (2012): We Have Goals. Now What?, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 44:6, 14-25
• Bensimon, E. M., & Harris III, F. (2012). The mediational means of enacting equity-mindedness among community college practitioners. In E. M. Bensimon & L. E. Malcolm (Eds.), Confronting Equity Issues on Campus: Implementing the Equity Scorecard in Theory and Practice. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
• Bensimon, E. M., & Harris III, F. (2012). The mediational means of enacting equity-mindedness among community college practitioners. In E. M. Bensimon & L. E. Malcolm (Eds.), Confronting Equity Issues on Campus: Implementing the Equity Scorecard in Theory and Practice. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
• Bensimon, E. M., & Malcom, L. E. (2012). Confronting Equity Issues on Campus: Implementing the Equity Scorecard in Theory and Practice. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
• Chase, M. M., Dowd, A. C., Bordoloi Pazich, L., & Bensimon, E. M. (2012). Transfer Equity for "Minoritized" Students: A Critical Policy Analysis of Seven States. Educational Policy. Retrieved from http://epx.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/12/06/0895904812468227
• Dowd, A. C., Bishop, R., Bensimon, E. M., & Witham, K. (2012). Accountability for equity in postsecondary education. In K. S. Gallagher, R. Goodyear, D. J. Brewer & R. Rueda (Eds.), Urban education: a model for leadership and policy. New York: Routledge.
• Dowd, A. C., Malcom, L. E., Nakamoto, J., & Bensimon, E. M. (2012). Institutional researchers as teachers and equity advocates: Facilitating organizational learning and change. In E. M. Bensimon & L. E. Malcolm (Eds.), Confronting Equity Issues on Campus. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
• Witham, K. A., & Bensimon, E. M. (2012). Creating a culture of inquiry around equity and student success. In S. D. Museus & U. M. Jayakumar (Eds.), Creating campus cultures: Fostering success among racially diverse student populations (pp. 46-67). New York: Routledge.
• Chase, M. M., Bensimon, E. M., Shieh, L. T., Jones, T., & Dowd, A. C. (in press). Constraints and opportunities for practitioner agency in STEM programs in Hispanic serving community colleges. In J. L. Wood & R. T. Palmer (Eds.), Examining the role of community colleges in STEM production: A focus on underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities: Routledge.