KEYNOTE SPEAKER: LAURA W. PERNA

Laura W. Perna is Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Faculty Fellow of the Institute for Urban Research at the University of Pennsylvania.  Her scholarship focuses on understanding the ways that social structures, educational practices, and public policies enable and restrict college access and success, particularly for racial/ethnic minorities and individuals of lower socioeconomic status. 

Recent publications include:  Understanding the working college student: New research and its implications for policy and practice (2010, Stylus) and Preparing Today’s Students for Tomorrow’s Jobs in Metropolitan America: The Policy, Practice, and Research Issues (2012, University of Pennsylvania Press).One current project is examining the relationship between state public policy and higher education performance, where higher education performance is defined as educational education and equity in attainment across groups. 

She is currently serving as Vice President of the Postsecondary Education Division (Division J) of the American Education Research Association.  She is also serving as Associate Editor of the Journal of Higher Education and Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, and is a member of the editorial boards of several other leading journals (e.g., Educational Researcher, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Research in Higher Education).  She received the 2003 Promising Scholar/Early Career Achievement Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education, 2010 Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching from the University of Pennsylvania, and 2011 Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.