AERA has selected Adrianna Kezar, professor of education and co-director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education, as a 2015 AERA Fellow. AERA is the oldest and largest educational research association in the world. It established its fellowship program in 2007 to honor scholars with substantial research accomplishments.
Kezar is among 23 new Fellows who will be joining 579 current Fellows. “We are thrilled to honor these scholars for their commitment to excellence in research and for their significant contributions to the field,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “AERA Fellows emphasize to new scholars the importance of sustained research of excellence and exemplify the highest professional standards.”
Kezar’s research agenda explores the change process in higher education institutions and the role of leadership in creating change. She is also a well-known qualitative researcher and has written several texts and articles about ways to improve qualitative research in education. She has published 14 books, over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and over a hundred book chapters and reports.
“As demonstrated through her prolific research, Dr. Kezar’s interests are various and her impact has been widely felt, from policies affecting adjunct faculty to new approaches to STEM reform,” says USC Rossier Dean Karen Symms Gallagher. “USC Rossier congratulates her for this much-deserved honor.”
Most recently, Kezar co-authored the report “Adapting by Design: Creating Faculty Roles and Defining Faculty Work to Ensure an Intentional Future for Colleges and Universities,” which calls for a wider dialogue on shifting faculty roles and the future of higher education. She and co-author Daniel Maxey also serve as co-directors of the Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success, which is a project of the Pullias Center in partnership with the Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Kezar is also a noted expert on reforming STEM education. In February, she attended the 181st annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest general science meeting in the world. She provided insight on research-based tactics for implementing change in higher education to a symposium addressing the need to smooth students’ pathways in STEM education.
Kezar is co-directing a three-year National Science Foundation-funded project aimed at reforming STEM education.
Several current and former USC Rossier faculty members are AERA fellows, including Ron Avi Astor, Estela Mara Bensimon, Dominic Brewer, Richard Clark, Myron Dembo, Rodney Goodyear, Harry O’Neil, Robert Rueda, Gale Sinatra and William G. Tierney.
Kezar will be officially inducted during a special ceremony at the association’s annual meeting in Chicago next week.
