Heather McCambly, PhD

I am an assistant professor of Critical Higher Education Policy at the University of Pittsburgh. I am a mixed-methods, interdisciplinary scholar of higher education. I also study the role of organizations in (re)producing systemic, racial inequalities. I draw on a range of analytic and interpretive methods to study the influence of aspiring change agents on institutionalized racial inequities in higher education policy. Constructs central to my work include: racialized organizations, institutional persistence and change, racial frames, political development and racial backlash, and organizational sensemaking.

 

My current research asks: 1) What is and what could be the role of private philanthropy and public grantmaking in effecting racially just policy change in U.S. postsecondary education? and 2) Under what conditions do equity agendas address racialized inequalities rather than operating as new labels for old practices?

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My work has been recognized by the Spencer Foundation's Conference Grant to build the Quant4What Collective, the AERA Division-J Outstanding Dissertation Award, the American Political Science Association's David Brian Robertson 2022 Politics and History Best Paper Award, Northwestern University’s highly prestigious Presidential Fellowship, the Association for Education Finance and Policy’s New Scholar Award, the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness’ Summer Research Grant, and the Northwestern Graduate Research Grant.

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As a first-generation college student, a community college graduate, and a multi-ethnic Latina, I am personally invested in generating clearer explanations for how, despite years of equity interventions, students of color continue to have limited access to life-affirming postsecondary experiences.