Donald E. Heller is dean of the College of
Education and a
professor of higher, adult, and lifelong
education. Prior to his appointment in January
2012, he was director of the Center for the Study
of Higher Education and professor of education and
senior scientist at The Pennsylvania State
University. He also held a faculty appointment at
the University of Michigan. His teaching and
research is in the areas of educational economics,
public policy, and finance, with a primary focus
on issues of college access and choice for
low-income and minority students. He has consulted
on higher education policy issues with university
systems and policymaking organizations in
California, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts,
Michigan, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Washington,
Washington DC, and West Virginia, and has
testified in front of Congressional committees,
state legislatures, and in federal court cases as
an expert witness. Before his academic career, he
spent a decade as an information technology
manager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Heller's research has been published in
scholarly journals including the Journal of Higher
Education, Review of Higher Education, Educational
Policy, and The Journal of Student Financial Aid.
He is editor of the books The States and Public
Higher Education Policy: Affordability, Access,
and Accountability (Johns Hopkins University
Press, second edition, 2011). Generational
Shockwaves and the Implications for Higher
Education (with M. d’Ambrosio, Edward Elgar,
2009), State Postsecondary Education Research: New
Methods to Inform Policy and Practice (with K.
Shaw, Stylus Publishing, 2007), and Condition of
Access: Higher Education for Lower Income Students
(ACE/Praeger, 2002).
Dr. Heller received the 2002 Promising
Scholar/Early Career Achievement Award from the
Association for the Study of Higher Education, and
the 2001 Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award from
the National Association of Student Financial Aid
Administrators, for his contributions to the
literature on student financial aid.
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