For Immediate Release: February 28, 2020
Contacts: Tony Pals, tpals@aera.net (202) 238-3235
Tong Wu, twu@aera.net (202) 238-3233
Na'ilah Suad Nasir Voted AERA President-Elect; Key Members Elected to AERA Council
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 28, 2020—Na'ilah Suad Nasir, president of the Spencer Foundation, has been voted president-elect of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Nasir is the sixth president of the Spencer Foundation, which funds education research. Prior to her appointment at Spencer in 2017, she served as the vice-chancellor of equity and inclusion at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was professor and Birgeneau Chair in Educational Disparities. Nasir joins AERA Council this year as president-elect. Her presidency begins at the conclusion of the 2021 Annual Meeting.
Click here for the complete 2020 AERA election results.
Nasir’s research focuses on issues of race, culture, and learning. Specifically, she theorizes the nature of thinking and learning in relation to processes of identity, and explores culturally sustaining teaching approaches. Her numerous articles have appeared in the American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, Educational Researcher, and Phi Delta Kappan, among others. Her books include Racialized Identities: Race and Achievement Among African-American Youth (2011); Mathematics for Equity: A Framework for Successful Practice (2014); and We Dare Say Love: Supporting Achievement in the Educational Life of Black Boys (2018). She recently co-edited (with C. D. Lee, R. Pea, and M. McKinney de Royston), the Handbook of the Cultural Foundations of Learning, forthcoming by Routledge Press.
Nasir has a long history of service to AERA, serving on the Outstanding Book Award Committee (chair), Books Editorial Board, Journal Publications Committee, Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award Committee, and Division G Mentoring Committee (chair). She is a member of the National Academy of Education and an AERA Fellow. Upon becoming AERA president in 2021, Nasir will succeed Shaun Harper, Provost Professor in the Rossier School of Education and Marshall School of Business, Clifford and Betty Allen Chair in Urban Leadership, and founder and executive director of the Race and Equity Center, at the University of Southern California. Harper will assume the AERA presidency on April 21, 2020, at the close of the association’s annual meeting in San Francisco.
Key Members Elected to AERA Council
Along with Nasir as president-elect, members elected several new AERA Council representatives.
Council Members-at-Large
Two prominent scholars were elected to member-at-large positions on the AERA Council, commencing in 2020–2021. They will serve three-year terms.
Division Vice Presidents-Elect
Four education researchers were voted as division vice presidents-elect and will join AERA’s 2021–2022 Council, following the 2021 Annual Meeting. They will serve three-year terms.
Graduate Student Council
Andrea Abeita, a doctoral student at the University of New Mexico, was voted chair-elect of the Graduate Student Council and will join the AERA Council in 2021-2022.
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About AERA The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the largest national interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning. Founded in 1916, AERA advances knowledge about education, encourages scholarly inquiry related to education, and promotes the use of research to improve education and serve the public good. Find AERA on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.