Professional service to one’s institution, community, and field is an important part of being an educational leader and is expected of faculty members working at institutions of higher education. We are a professional service organization that receives institutional resources and support from UCEA to carry out our mission. While not faculty, as Council members, we are committed to developing opportunities for ourselves and others to practice professional service and lead in a variety of endeavors.
Members of the GSC coordinate their work across three committees: Graduate Student Summit, Researcher Development Program, and Communications.
While each GSC member serves on one committee, all council members participate in monthly meetings of the full GSC, guiding the ongoing mission of the GSC and supporting the needs of upcoming programming.
2022 - 2025 cohort
Caroline Bartlett is an IES predoctoral fellow and PhD student in Education Policy and K-12 Educational Administration at Michigan State University. Her research explores how policy inputs and policy implementation shape educational opportunities for underserved groups of students, particularly multilingual students identified as English learners.
2023 - 2026 cohort
Annie Gensterblum is a PhD student in Education Policy at Michigan State University. Focusing on power dynamics and who has voice within local governance, Annie’s research focuses on parent groups and participation in school board meetings and elections.
2023 - 2026 cohort
Johnathon Jerman is a second-year doctoral student in Education Policy and Leadership Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research centers around 1) superintendent turnover and attrition 2) prohibited concepts in education, and 3) gender and racial gaps in K-12 educational leadership.
GSC Cohort: 2024 - 2026
Kathryn James McGraw is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. Her research interests revolve around K-12 education policy and equity for leaders, teachers, and students in the American South. She uses quantitative and mixed methods to examine processes and policies which contribute to (in)equitable experiences and outcomes in school discipline and climate, teacher and leader labor markets, and state accountability policy.
GSC Cohort: 2024 - 2026
Qurrat ul Ain Rasheed is a doctoral candidate in Education Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Her research explores how different environments mediate the relationship between personality traits of leaders and decision making particularly, how artificial intelligence environments mediate the decision making of educational leaders with dark triad personality traits. In addition to serving on the UCEA GSC, she teaches project management to graduate students at Binghamton University and is training manager at Public Finance Research Cluster at Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.
GSC Cohort: 2024 - 2026
Rosita Tantao is a doctoral student in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies program at the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver. Centering her research on Latino Critical Theory, Rosita is exploring the development of Latina leadership within principal preparation programs and the sustainability of Latina leaders as impacted by district and state policies that perpetuate a white standard of success not meant for Latina success in educational leadership.
GSC Cohort: 2022 - 2025
Dave Osworth, Ph.D., is a recent graduate of the department of Leadership, Learning Design, and Inquiry at the University of South Carolina. His research agenda centers equity and educational leadership and policy. He specifically studies school takeover, school discipline, and district-university partnerships.
GSC Cohort: 2023 - 2026
Benjamin Lebovitz is PhD student in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis and an IES predoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their research focuses on the intersection of education policy and LGBTQ+ student and educator identity, wellbeing, and belonging.
GSC Cohort: 2024 - 2026
Cheyenne Phillips is a Ph.D. student in Education Policy and Leadership at Southern Methodist University. Her research broadly focuses on the intersection of education policy and equity, with specific interest in school choice, segregation, and student homelessness.
GSC Cohort: 2022 - 2025
Jeffrey Wooten is a Ph.D. student in the Education Leadership, Policy, and Justice program at Virginia Commonwealth University. His primary research agenda focuses on K-12 school integration, segregation, and rezoning. More specifically, he is interested in how schools can provide more equitable long-term outcomes for students with more equitable and diverse educational settings.
GSC Cohort: 2023 - 2026
Dayna Muñiz is a doctoral candidate in the Educational Leadership program at Temple University's College of Education and Human Development. Her research interests center on equity-focused school leadership, the superintendency, organizational change, the experiences of minoritized educational leaders, the equity director Committee and its evolution, and understanding schools as racialized organizations. She also serves as the Associate Director of the Coalition for Educational Equity at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education.
GSC Cohort: 2024 - 2026
Debbie Jones (she/her) is an Educational Policy Ph.D. Candidate at The Ohio State University. Debbie has also completed the Anti-Racism in Education Graduate Certificate program and the Public Policy and Management graduate minor. Her research centers around the pillars of education, equity, and policy, specifically at the intersection of democracy and justice in education. She also serves as both a Graduate Research Associate and Graduate Teaching Assistant for the Educational Studies department.