Research
I seek to reimagine how organizational structures, policies, and practices can create more justice-oriented and equitable experiences and outcomes for all faculty, staff, and students.
I humbly approach my research agenda centering the perspectives of participants to critically examine systemic and organizational structures to create inclusive and equitable experiences and outcomes for all faculty, staff, and students in higher education. I utilize my significant coursework in organizational theory and public policy, along with my prior professional experience to shape a research agenda that meets rigorous scholarly standards and can be applied to improve higher education organizations and practice.
I research questions related to three areas of inquiry that implicate higher education organizations as both a barrier and catalyst to social stratification and mobility:
Student Access & Success
How can institutions of higher education create more equitable organizational contexts, policies, and practices to recruit, enroll, teach, and graduate historically and socially marginalized students?
Academic Careers & Leadership
How can higher education organizations more equitably create leadership pathways for underrepresented faculty and staff?
Organizational Theory & Research
How can scholars and practitioners utilize and advance organizational theory and research to create more equitable experiences and outcomes for socially marginalized and systemically disadvantaged faculty, staff, and students in higher education?
I use multiple methodologies to answer empirical questions. I have research skills in qualitative data collection and analysis, specifically using focus group and individual interview techniques both in-person and virtual. In addition, I employ phenomenological, grounded theory, and narrative inquiry approaches to research design and data analysis. While most of my research is qualitative in nature, I have advanced training in quantitative methodologies through coursework in Regression Analysis, Categorical Data Analysis, Structural Equation Modeling, and Network Analysis. I have participated in quantitative training from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICSPR) Summer Program and qualitative analysis workshops
from the University of North Carolina’s Odum Institute.
Due to my commitment to translating rigorous research into practical application, I have collaborated and been affiliated with interdisciplinary research centers with similar aims:
- EdPolicy Forward: Center for Education Policy at George Mason University
- National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- Relational Coordination Collaborative at Brandeis University
- The Centre for Social Mobility at the University of Exeter (UK)
In addition, I have presented my research through a range of academic and practitioner organizations, such as:
- American Education Research Association
- Association for the Study of Higher Education
- FirstGen Forward
- National Association for Diversity Officers in Higher Education
- National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in Higher Education
- NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education
- Society of Research into Higher Education
Jeffrey K. Grim, Ph.D. 