SEL: Changing Campus Culture to Support DEI

Postdoctoral Researcher Elizabeth Holcombe and Adrianna Kezar Detail How Shared-Equity Leadership Leads to DEI Support While colleges and universities have worked to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over the last several decades, campuses are still struggling to make meaningful change to their cultures in ways that truly embed DEI in everything they do. The role of leadership in facilitating […]

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Shared Equity Leadership: Grad Students Share the Impact

Key Members of the Pullias Team Share Their Experiences with Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Shared Equity Leadership Three grad students at USC’s Rossier School of Education are key members of the team working on the Pullias Center and ACE’s Shared Equity Leadership (SEL) project. Jude Paul Matias Dizon, Jordan Harper and Natsumi Ueda bring their own experiences with diversity to […]

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Pullias Center Faculty Looks Forward to the 2021-2022 Academic Year

The start of a new academic year brings hope and promise that the pandemic and its challenges are decreasing. Teaching classes and doing research over Zoom was not the direction any of us suspected the previous academic year to go, and yet educators and students alike managed to persevere and move forward with their educational work. The University of Southern […]

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Zoë B. Corwin: Learning More than Tricks from Skateboarders

A year ago, I invited colleagues from across USC to collaborate on an interdisciplinary participatory action research study to explore the intersection of skateboarding, mental wellness, and community. We called the study Mattering in the Margins because we wanted to highlight the complex and wonderful ways that skaters thrive despite regularly being stigmatized and pushed to the margins of educational and […]

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Inside the New Skateboarding Study: Reflections from the Researchers

In the summer of 2020, USC faculty – with funding from the USC Provost’s Office – embarked on the Mattering in the Margins study to explore how Los Angeles area skateboarders navigate wellness and foster community. In February of 2021, we welcomed a brilliant group of skateboarders – between the ages of 18-30 – as participatory action research collaborators. The […]

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Challenges, Risks, and Rewards

Dr. Huerta’s research team at the Pullias Center reflects on mixing a graduate education with research  Authors:  Maria Romero-Morales, Edgar Lopez, Julie Nguyen, Maritza Salazar, Kyrie Sanchinelli-Salazar, Haille Thomas, and Rosalva Isidoro Feeling uncomfortable is the key to improving creativity and learning, academic and professional growth, and, especially, finding success in graduate school and beyond. In general, master’s and doctoral […]

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John Brooks Slaughter: Engineering a Better Education

The Pullias Center’s John Brooks Slaughter reflects on his unique role at the intersection of education and engineering. There have been many occasions when I have been asked, “What does a Professor of Education and Engineering do?” Over time I have developed an answer that on the surface may seem glib or flippant. I say, my job is to teach […]

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Tatiana Melguizo: Charting a Path Away from Developmental Education Starts in California

The Pullias Center’s Tatiana Melguizo discusses her research team’s dive into California’s historic AB705 legislation and why community colleges across the country should pay attention. The California community college system has had to deal with two major developments in the past two years. First, the state passed Assembly Bill 705 (AB705), which required colleges to place students directly in transfer-level […]

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Pullias Center 25th Anniversary Reflection: Adrianna Kezar

Adrianna Kezar, Director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education, reflects on the Center’s 25th Anniversary in this tenth and final of a series of essays marking the occasion throughout the year. It is hard for me to believe that I have been a part of Pullias for 17 of its 25 years! Time cannot have flown more quickly. As […]

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Dr. Jennifer Keup: Reframing Transition as the Path to Hope and Healing

Jennifer R. Keup, Executive Director of The National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, shares her perspective on this tumultuous year. When I was asked to serve as the guest editor of the December issue of the Pullias Center’s newsletter and write a story for the website, I braced myself for a daunting task. How does […]

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