Dr. Tierney earned a master's degree from Harvard University and holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University in administration and policy analysis. His research interests pertain to faculty productivity, decision making, organizational re-engineering, and issues of equity. Some of his  publications include Competing Conceptions of Academic Governance: Negotiating the Perfect Storm (2004); The Responsive University: Restructuring For High Performance (1998); Official Encouragement, Institutional Discouragement: Minorities in Academe - The Native American Experience (1992); and Building Communities of Difference: Higher Education in the 21st Century (1993). He has recently received funding for a three-year project that looks at how to improve financial aid strategies for low income youth and their families. He also is involved with project to improve governance in four-year colleges and universities, and an additional project to determine the effective parameters of college preparation programs for low income urban youth. He teaches graduate courses on curricular theory, administration, policy, organizational behavior, and qualitative methodology.

Tierney brings with him both administrative experience as an academic dean at a Native American community college in North Dakota, and cross-cultural insight from Peace Corps work in Morocco, as well as a year in Central America as a Fulbright Scholar. He received the Distinguished Research Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) for his work. CHANGE magazine recognized him as one of 40 "young leaders in the academy." He is chair of the University Committee on Academic Review, a member of the Provost's Committee on Strategic Change, a member of the University Committee on Promotion and Tenure, and a member of the University Grievance Committee.

Dr. Adrianna Kezar is Associate Professor, Senior Scholar for the MacGregor Burns Leadership Academy, and Editor for the ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report Series. Prior to her appointment, she was an assistant professor at The University of Maryland and George Washington University, and director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education. Kezar holds a Ph.D. and MA in Higher Education Administration from the University of Michigan and B.A. for the University of California, Los Angeles. She has published extensively on the topics of higher education leadership, change, governance, diversity issues, and philosophical questions. Her most recent publications include Higher Education for the Public Good (from Jossey-Bass, edited with Tony Chambers and Anthony Burkhardt) and "Obtaining Integrity? Reviewing the Charter between Higher Education and Society" in The Review of Higher Education. Dr. Kezar's research has been used to guide the development of a national leadership institute for women administrators in higher education.

Lloyd Armstrong is University Professor and Provost Emeritus at the University of Southern California with appointments in the Rossier School of Education and the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences. He served as Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs for USC from 1993-2005. He previously served as dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Armstrong's research focuses on the university of the future with a particular emphasis on the globalization of higher education.

Estela Mara Bensimon is a professor of higher education and the Director of the Center for Urban Education. Dr. Bensimon's research interests include organizational change and academic leadership, equity in educational outcomes, women and minority faculty, and faculty evaluation and compensation. She teaches courses on organization theory and the administration of higher education. Her recent publications include "Doing Research to Make a Difference" in Journal of Higher Education and "Posttenure Review: The Disparity between Intent and Implementation" in The Review of Higher Education. Currently, she directs an action research project funded by the James Irvine Foundation to improve equity in educational outcomes for minority students in 14 urban colleges. Dr. Bensimon served as Associate Dean of the Rossier School of Education from 1996-2000, and she was a Fulbright Scholar to Mexico in 2002.

Dominic J. Brewer was previously a Vice President at RAND Corporation, where he directed the education program for more than five years. Dr. Brewer is a labor economist specializing in the economics of education and education policy. He has overseen major projects focusing on educational productivity and teacher issues in both K-12 and higher education, and published more than 50 economics and education journal articles, book chapters, and monographs. His recent publications include three books: one on higher education institutions and the others on vouchers and charter schools and charter school effectiveness as well as a review of the evidence on class size in Scientific American. He is an Associate Editor of Economics of Education Review and has been a frequent reviewer for OERI, NCES, and NSF.

Dr. Cole is an Associate Professor of Education with an emphasis in higher education and education psychology. His areas of research include race/ ethnicity, diversity, college student experiences, and learning. Previously he served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Hawaii, Manoa (Honolulu). He was also a faculty member at Marquette University. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina, at Charlotte and received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is on the review board of Journal Educational Foundations.

He has published over 25 articles and book chapters and is featured in the major journals for higher education and other related fields including The Journal of Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, NASPA Journal, Journal of Classroom Behavior, and Journal fo Creative Behavior. His most recent article "Do Interracial Interactions Matter? An examination of Intellectual Self-Concept" will appear in the Journal of Higher Education.

Michael Diamond, a former President of the American Accounting Association, is a leader in the accounting education reform movement. His current research focuses on leadership and strategic planning in higher education. He formerly served as vice president and executive vice provost of USC; dean of the USC Leventhal School of Accounting; and director of the school’s SEC and Financial Reporting Institute. He has lectured throughout the United States, Europe and Asia on accounting and business curriculum revision.
 

Guilbert C. Hentschke is a former dean of the Rossier School and a professor in the Division of Education Policy and Administration. He specializes in the study of emerging for-profit and non-profit educational enterprises and their impact on educational opportunities for urban youth. He recently co-authored "Incentives for Charter Schools: Building School Capacity through Cross-Sectoral Alliances" in Educational Administration Quarterly and "Changing Resource and Organizational Patterns: The Challenge of Resourcing Education in the 21st Century" in Journal of Educational Change. He serves on boards of organizations whose primary missions are to improve the education of young people, especially those who reside in urban and metropolitan environments. Principal among these organizations are the National Center on Education and the Economy, Aspen Youth Services, WestEd Regional Educational Laboratory, the Galaxy Institute of Education, and Success Lab. At the Rossier School of Education, he directs graduate programs which seek to enhance business expertise within educational organizations.

Dr. Jackson holds a joint appointment as a Professor of Higher Education in the Rossier School of Education and as Vice President for the University's Division of Student Affairs and its comprehensive student life program for 31,000 students. He also serves as a member of the Provost's senior staff and works closely with the President. Both education and student affairs allows Professor Jackson to work collaboratively with deans, faculty and other staff to enhance the institution's academic, social and cultural programs, and its living and learning environment.

Alexander Jun is Associate Professor of Clinical Education and Director of the Masters Program in Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs (PASA). Prior to joining the faculty, Dr. Jun served as the Director of Undergraduate Programs in the Office of the Provost at USC, and was responsible for overseeing academic programs to increase retention and graduation for all undergraduates at the university. He has published on the topics of access, retention, and college preparation. His research focuses on college access and equity for historically underrepresented groups in urban environments. Dr. Jun teaches course in higher education foundations and ethnographic research methods.

William Maxwell has studied secondary school and college students in several societies in Asia and North America. His research interests have included college access and equity, higher education's impact on class, gender and ethnic identity, and the expansion of higher education. His current studies concern community colleges for nontraditional students, faculty development, and international comparisons of higher education expansion.

Tatiana Melguizo received a Ph.D. in Economics of Education from Stanford University and a M.A. in Social Policy from the London School of Economics. Prior to joining USC, she worked as a Research Analyst at the SPHERE Institute. Her recent research has been in higher education, focusing on the differences in educational outcomes and earnings by race/ethnicity and gender. She has substantial experience in social policy and evaluation. Dr. Melguizo is currently working on the Investment in Community College Transfer Initiative funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.

Melora Sundt teaches in the M.S. and Ed.D./Ph.D. programs of the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis at the University of Southern California. She teaches a number of student development-based courses including Student Development Theory, Campus Interventions, Paraprofessional Counseling, and Introduction to Student Affairs. Dr. Sundt is also a resident consultant with the RAND Corporation, working on an evaluation of the Corporation for National Service project, Learn and Serve America: Higher Education. The project funds over 300 service-learning programs at institutions of higher education across the nation. For this project, Dr. Sundt has been studying the AmeriCorps Demonstration projects, consortium-based projects, faculty participation in service-learning, and the process of institutionalization. In the past, Dr. Sundt has conducted evaluations of nationally- and internationally-based educational partnerships and programs for federal agencies and foundations such as USAID, FIPSE, NEH, and the Kauffman Foundation. Other work has addressed sexual harassment in the academy, gender bias in the middle school classroom, sexual assault on campus, hate speech codes and academic integrity.

Dr. Venegas earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education Policy Analysis at the University of Southern California. Prior to joining the Rossier faculty, she served as an assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of Nevada, Reno. With more than 15 years of experience in student services, she teaches courses related to postsecondary administration and student affairs. In addition to her role as the director of Masters Programs, she is an assistant professor of clinical education and a research associate in the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis.

Her research agenda focuses on college access and financial aid for low-income students of color. Her work has appeared in American Behavioral Scientist, Urban Education, American Academic, Educational Studies and the Journal of Student Financial Aid. She is a former James Irvine Minority Doctoral Fellow, ASHE/Lumina Dissertation Fellow, and USC Mexican American Alumni Scholar. Her most recently funded research projects are related to the role of college preparation programs in providing financial aid information.