July 2024

AERA has named two education research scholars as AERA Congressional Fellows for 2024–25. The Fellows will spend a year in Washington, D.C., working as staff for a member of Congress or a Congressional committee and will use their education research expertise to inform public policy and the legislative process. This is the eighth year of the AERA Congressional Fellowship Program.

The two 2024–25 AERA Congressional Fellows are Jeongeun Kim (University of Maryland, College Park) and Kathryn E. Wiley (Howard University). The AERA Congressional Fellowship Program begins September 1 each year.

	Jeongeun Kim is an associate professor of higher education at the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research explores how policies related to the financing of postsecondary education affect access, affordability, and quality. She collaborates with researchers and institutional-, state-, and national-level policymakers, and industry partners in the U.S. and multiple countries in Asia and Latin America. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
	Kathryn Wiley is an assistant professor in the School of Education at Howard University. Her research addresses school discipline and safety, school funding and resourcing, and education leadership with an emphasis on racial inequality and educational opportunity. Her work has appeared in the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Administration Quarterly, Race Ethnicity and Education, the Journal of School Leadership, Education Week, and Chalkbeat, among others. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Boulder.

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Kim and Dr. Wiley join the AERA Congressional Fellowship Program this year,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “With their backgrounds and research skills and savvy, they will connect the field with policymakers and expand public understanding and appreciation of important of education research and data and evidence more broadly.”

AERA is one of more than 30 scientific and engineering societies that sponsor congressional fellowships through a program coordinated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). AERA Congressional Fellows benefit from a comprehensive two-week orientation as well as professional development and networking opportunities throughout the year that are administered by AAAS. AERA also provides professional development and networking opportunities targeted specifically to education researchers.

The call for applications for the AERA 2025–26 Congressional Fellowship Program will be released in October.