Washington, March 29, 2021—H. Richard Milner IV, Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development, has been voted president-elect of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Milner has secondary appointments in Peabody’s Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations and in the Department of Sociology in Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science. Milner joins AERA Council this year as president-elect. His presidency begins at the conclusion of the 2022 Annual Meeting.
Milner studies urban education and teacher education, with an emphasis on equity and justice. Specifically, he explores micro-level school policies that shape students’ opportunities to learn, studies the social context of classrooms and schools, and examines the ways in which teachers’ discourses about race influence student learning, identity, and development. Milner’s research has advanced conceptual clarity in urban education. He has developed key tools for addressing racial opportunity gaps in education, including an Opportunity Gap Framework, a Researcher Positionality Framework, and a Teachers’ Race Talk Survey.
Milner has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters, and his articles have appeared in journals such as Educational Researcher, Urban Education, Review of Research in Education, Journal of Negro Education, and Journal of Teacher Education. His books Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There (Harvard Education Press, 2020) and Raceing to Class (Harvard Education Press, 2015), and co-authored book “These Kids Are Out of Control” (Corwin Press, 2018) have influenced designs, policies, and practices of school districts and teacher education courses across the U.S. and beyond.
Milner is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and an AERA Fellow, and delivered the 2018 AERA Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research. He is the recipient of the AERA Early Career Award (2016) and the AERA Division K Award for Innovations in Research on Diversity in Teacher Education (2015). Milner currently serves as chair of AERA’s Exemplary Contributions to Practice-Engaged Research Award Committee, and serves on the editorial board of Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of AERA. Upon becoming AERA president in 2022, Milner will succeed Na’ilah Suad Nasir, president of the Spencer Foundation. Nasir will assume the AERA presidency on April 12, 2021, at the close of the association’s 2021 Annual Meeting.
Key Members Elected to AERA Council
Along with Milner as president-elect, AERA members elected several new Council representatives.
Council Members-at-Large
Two prominent scholars were elected to member-at-large positions on the AERA Council, commencing in 2021–2022. They will serve three-year terms.
- Thandeka K. Chapman, University of California, San Diego
- Linda T. Smith, University of Waikato
Division Vice Presidents-Elect
Four education researchers were voted as division vice presidents-elect and will join AERA’s 2022–2023 Council after the 2022 Annual Meeting. They will serve three-year terms.
- Division E: Counseling and Human Development
Lisa De La Rue, University of San Francisco
- Division J: Postsecondary Education
Jenny J. Lee, University of Arizona
- Division K: Teaching and Teacher Education
Mariana Souto-Manning, Teachers College, Columbia University
- Division L: Educational Policy and Politics
Sheneka M. Williams, Michigan State University
Special Interest Groups (SIG) Executive Committee
Verónica E. Valdez, University of Utah, was elected chair-elect of the SIG Executive Committee. She will serve as chair-elect in 2021–2022, and her two-year term as chair will commence at the conclusion of the 2022 Annual Meeting. While chair, she will serve as a member of AERA Council.
Graduate Student Council
Andrea (Andii) Layton, a doctoral student at Pennsylvania State University, was voted chair-elect of the Graduate Student Council and will join the AERA Council in 2022–2023.
Complete 2021 AERA election results will be posted to the AERA website this week.
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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.
