Barbara Schneider, John A. Hannah Chair and University Distinguished Professor in the College of Education and Department of Sociology at Michigan State University, has been voted president-elect of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Her term as president starts at the conclusion of the 2013 Annual Meeting, after one year of service as president-elect.
Schneider will succeed William G. Tierney, a University of Southern California professor and director of the Pullias Center (formerly the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis). Dr. Tierney will assume the AERA presidency on April 17, 2012 at the close of the association’s 93rd Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia.
“Barbara Schneider has significantly advanced the scientific study of education and has made major contributions to AERA throughout her career,” says AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “As author and coeditor of two volumes published by AERA, Estimating Causal Effects Using Experimental and Observational Designs and the Handbook of Education Policy Research, Schneider has helped to shape the future of education research and policy.”
Schneider, who holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, has been at the forefront of education research. Her work focuses on family, the social context of schooling and sociology of knowledge. Her teaching and research examine social contexts of schools and families and the influence they exert on academic and social well-being of adolescents as they move into adulthood. Schneider places a particular emphasis on improving educational opportunities for students with limited economic and social resources.
She is coauthor of 15 books, including The Ambitious Generation: America’s Teenagers, Motivated but Directionless; Becoming Adult: How Teenagers Prepare for the World of Work; and Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for Improvement. Schneider also is author of numerous journal articles and has served as editor of Sociology of Education.
Among her honors, Schneider has been named an AERA Fellow; a Fulbright New Century Scholar (2007–2008 cohort); and Senior Fellow at NORC at the University of Chicago. In 2011, she was awarded the Elizabeth G. Cohen Distinguished Career in Applied Sociology of Education Award by the American Sociological Association.
“I am very excited about Barbara’s election to the post of president-elect of AERA,” said Donald E. Heller, dean of the College of Education at MSU. “I can think of no one who is better prepared to accept this responsibility and represent Michigan State University, and more broadly, the education research profession, than Barbara. I know she will lead the organization to great accomplishments during her term as president-elect and president in the following year.”
In past service to AERA, Schneider has served as editor of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (2001-2003), chair of the AERA Government Relations Committee, a member of the Governing Board of the AERA Grants Program, and a member of the AERA Task Force on the Reauthorization of the Institute of Education Sciences.
– From AERA News
Visit the AERA website for more information about the association’s governance and organizational structure, as well as a full list of past presidents.
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In addition, Ann Austin, a professor of higher education at MSU, has been elected to serve as an at-large member of the AERA Council.