William G. Tierney, a University of Southern California (USC) professor who is an expert in the study of higher education and directs the USC Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis, serves as president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

Professor Tierney succeeded Arnetha F. Ball, a Stanford University education professor who is a language, literacy, teacher education, and urban studies expert.

Tierney, who holds a Ph.D. degree in administration and policy analysis from Stanford University, is director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education, University Professor and Wilbur-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education in the USC’s Rossier School of Education. Previously, he was professor and senior scientist at Pennsylvania State University’s Center for the Study of Higher Education, and a senior associate at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.

Tierney’s research and scholarship are both applied and theoretical, often concentrating on governance and administration in higher education.  His current research projects focus on governance, access, faculty productivity, critical theory, organizational culture, organizational change, leadership, issues of equity, affirmative action, multi-cultural education and qualitative methods for the study of higher education. His research has been supported by both federal and private sources, including the U.S. Department of Education, Lumina Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and TIAA-CREF.

His publications are extensive and diverse, including books, edited books, monographs, scholarly journal articles, op ed essays in major daily newspapers, and his own blog at 21st century scholar.org.

Tierney has written 11 books in the areas of academic access and governance, including The Impact of Culture on Organizational Decision-making: Theory and Practice in Higher Education (2008), New players, Different Game: Understanding the Rise of For-profit Colleges and Universities (with Guilbert Hentschke, 2007), and Trust and the Public Good: Examining the Cultural Conditions of Academic Work (2006).

Among the journals in which his scholarly papers have been published are AERA’s Review of Educational Research, as well as the Harvard Educational Review, The Europa World of Learning, Journal of Higher Education, and Teachers College Record.

In addition to his research and teaching, Tierney makes time to contribute to professional organizations. He is a past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, which presented him its “Distinguished Research Award” in 1997. He also has served USC as president of its Academic Senate from 1999 to 2000.

A former Peace Corps volunteer teacher in Morocco, Tierney holds great interest in the international arena, having written a reassessment of globalization, international rankings and the American model. In 2008, he was scholar-in-residence at the University Sains Malaysia, and was a Fulbright Scholar to Australia and Central America in 2001 and 1993, respectively.

An active AERA member since 1984, Professor Tierney is an elected Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. He also has served as a member-at-large on the AERA Executive Board and Council and vice president of Division J, Postsecondary Education.