Meet Our Faculty
Cameron Beatty
Associate Professor & Program Coordinator
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
cbeatty@fsu.edu
Dr. Cameron C. Beatty, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department at Florida State University. Dr. Beatty teaches courses in the undergraduate leadership studies program and the higher education graduate program, as well as conducts research with the Leadership Learning Research Center. Dr. Beatty is currently the Program Coordinator for the Higher Education Program. Dr. Beatty's research foci includes exploring the intersections of gender and race in leadership education, leadership development of Students of Color on historically white college campuses, and understanding experiences of racial battle fatigue for Black and Latinx students. His recent publications center on topics that include: navigating racial battle fatigue for campus student leaders, supporting undergraduate Black women through Sister Circles, gains in leadership capacity for high achieving Black men leaders, and supporting undergraduate men in leadership education through liberatory pedagogy. In 2019 Dr. Beatty co-edited a monograph titled: Critical Considerations for Race, Ethnicity and Culture for Fraternity and Sorority Life. He is a scholar passionate about deconstructing race, systemic racism, and hegemonic masculinity in postsecondary education environments. Dr. Beatty recently co-authored two books for the Information Age Publishing series, Contemporary Perspectives on Leadership Learning. The first book, Engaging in the Leadership Process: Identity, Capacity, and Efficacy for College Students, is co-authored with Dr. Kathy Guthrie and Dr. Erica Wiborg. The second book, also co-authored with Dr. Kathy Guthrie, is titled Operationalizing Culturally Relevant Leadership Learning, and was published 2021. The forthcoming book, Engaging Black Men in College Through Leadership Learning, is co-edited with Dr. Jesse Ford and will be published in spring 2023.
Prior to joining the faculty at Florida State University, Dr. Beatty was an assistant professor at Salem State University in the higher education student affairs program. He was also previously the Coordinator and Lecturer for the Leadership Studies Program at Iowa State University, where he was not only responsible for the administration of the certificate program, but also directed the Global Leadership Study Abroad Program to Sweden and Vermeer International Scholarship Program. Dr. Beatty has professional experience in fraternity and sorority advising, campus programming boards, and supervising academic peer mentors.
Dr. Beatty is a 2020-2021 McKnight Junior Faculty Fellow with the Florida Education Fund. He recently received the FSU Inclusive Teaching and Mentoring Award. Dr. Beatty was named a 2018 ACPA (American College Personnel Association) Emerging Scholar designee. He completed his Ph.D. at Iowa State University in the Higher Education Administration Program with a concentration in Social Justice in 2014. Cameron received a B.S. in Sociology and a M.S. in Higher Education Student Affairs, both from Indiana University, Bloomington (IUB).
Dr. Beatty co-hosts, Scholar Tea, a fun and witty podcast with Dr. Shawna Patterson-Stephens (a Florida State alumna) that explores current issues in higher education from a critical perspective.
Tamara Bertrand Jones
Associate Professor
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
@tbertrandjones | tbertrand@fsu.edu
Dr. Tamara Bertrand Jones currently serves as an Associate Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida State University. Her research examines the sociocultural influences on socialization during graduate education and the professional experiences of underrepresented populations, particularly Black women, in academia. Her previous work as an administrator and program evaluator also influence her other research interests in culturally responsive assessment and evaluation.
She is a founder and past president of Sisters of the Academy Institute, an international organization that promotes collaborative scholarship and networking among Black women in the academy. She collaborated with fellow scholars to write Pathways to Higher Education for African American Women (Stylus Publishing) and Cultivating Leader Identity and Capacity in Students from Diverse Backgrounds (Jossey-Bass). She has also authored, solely and collaboratively referred journal articles.
She was awarded a McKnight Junior Faculty Fellowship for the 2014-2015 academic year. In 2013, she received a Transformation Through Teaching award from Florida State University’s Spiritual Life Project in recognition of playing a transformational role in a student’s academic life. She has taught courses on Diversity in Higher Education, Student Services in Higher Education, Outcomes of Higher Education, Institutional Research, and Literature Review and Professional Writing.
Dr. Bertrand Jones remains active in the campus and community by serving on numerous college and university committees and volunteering regularly. In 2012, she was inducted into the FSU chapter of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest, largest, and most selective honor society for all academic disciplines. She was also named the 2009 recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Service Award from Florida State University for exemplifying outstanding service in keeping with the principles of Dr. King.
Dr. Bertrand Jones received her Doctor of Philosophy in Research and Evaluation Methods from Florida State University in 2006. Read Dr. Bertrand Jones's full bio here.
Annie Wofford
Assistant Professor
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
@annie_woff | awofford@fsu.edu
Dr. Annie M. Wofford (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor in the Higher Education program in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. She previously received a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, earned a Ph.D. in Education (specialty: Higher Education and Organizational Change) at the University of California, Los Angeles, completed a postdoctoral scholar position on an NSF-funded project at Northern Arizona University, and has several years of experience as a scholar-practitioner in medical school graduate admissions. Broadly, her research focuses on understanding and disrupting the structural disparities that typify students’ pathways to and through graduate education, with a specific focus on how to create more equitable structures of support (e.g., mentoring networks) in STEM fields.
Dr. Wofford’s current research projects focus on (in)equity within the pathways to and through graduate school in computing-related fields, using critical quantitative and qualitative methods to address related questions in this area. She has received funding from the Inclusive Graduate Education Network to engage in a research-practice partnership about graduate students’ equity-minded mentoring practices and serves as a workshop facilitator for the Equity in Graduate Education consortium.
Her independent and collaborative research has been published in many well-regarded journals, including top-tier higher education outlets (e.g., The Journal of Higher Education, The Review of Higher Education, Higher Education, Research in Higher Education) as well as outlets that cater toward audiences with STEM practitioners (e.g., Computer Science Education, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering).
At FSU, she currently teaches content courses in higher education to master’s and doctoral students, such as Higher Education in America, History of Higher Education, and Organization and Governance in Higher Education.
Kathy Guthrie
Professor
Director, Leadership Learning Research Center
@kathylguthrie | kguthrie@fsu.edu
Dr. Kathy L. Guthrie is an Associate Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida State University. In addition to teaching in the Higher Education program, Dr. Guthrie also serves as the director of the Leadership Learning Research Center and coordinates the Undergraduate Certificate in Leadership Studies, which is a partnership between the College of Education and the Division of Student Affairs. Her research focuses on the learning outcomes and environment of leadership and civic education, online teaching and learning, and professional development for Student Affairs Professionals.
Dr. Guthrie has authored and co-authored over 30 refereed journal articles, six book chapters, two books, and co-edited three monographs and one book. Recently, her co-authored book The Role of Leadership Educators: Transforming Learning was published. Dr. Guthrie was also recently named as an affiliated researcher with the Center for Arts, Business, and Culture at the Stockholm School of Economics in Stockholm, Sweden.
In her current role with Florida State University, she has taught courses in higher education, including Introduction to Student Services, Leading Change in Higher Education, Practicum in Student Services, and Capstone in Higher Education. She has also taught courses in the undergraduate Leadership certificate, including Leadership Theory and Practice, Leadership in Groups and Communities, Leadership and Change, and Leadership Experience. Over the course of her career, she has been honored with many awards, including the ACPA Diamond Honoree designation, Transformation through Teaching Award, Florida State University College of Education Teaching Award, Association of College Personnel Administrators’ Emerging Scholar, Seminole Faculty Award, National Association of Student Personnel Administrators’ Contributions to Student Affairs through Teaching, and NASPA's Robert H. Shaffer Award for Academic Excellence as a Graduate Faculty Member.
Dr. Guthrie is an editorial board member of the Journal of Leadership Education and the Journal of College and Character. Currently, Dr. Guthrie is the associate editor of the New Directions in Student Leadership series and editor of the Contemporary Perspectives in Leadership Learning book series.
Dr. Guthrie received her Ph.D. in Educational Organization and Leadership from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Guthrie's full bio here.
Shouping Hu
Professor
Founding Director, Center for Postsecondary Success
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
shu@fsu.edu
Dr. Shouping Hu is the Louis W. and Elizabeth N. Bender Endowed Professor of Higher Education and the founding director of the Center for Postsecondary Success (CPS) at Florida State University (FSU). He also serves as a co-director of the Collaborative Lab for the Advancement of Student Success (CLASS) at FSU.
Dr. Hu’s research interests examine issues related to postsecondary readiness, outcomes, and success. Dr. Hu has published over 90 journal articles and book chapters and is the author of five books. He has secured, in total, about eight million dollars in funding support from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Regional Educational Laboratory-Southeast (REL-SE), NPEC/AIR, and other sources.
Dr. Hu teaches and has taught graduate-level courses in Higher Education Finance, Public Policy in Higher Education, International Perspectives in Higher Education, Research on College Students, Prospectus Development, and Student Success in College (online), among many others.
Dr. Hu has served as an editorial/advisory board member of the Journal of Higher Education, Educational Researcher, Research in Higher Education, Review of Educational Research, and Journal of College Student Development. He is currently serving as the founding editor of the Journal of Postsecondary Student Success and the associate editor for the policy section of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. He has served as a standing member for the Systems and Broad Reform panel and the National Research and Development (R&D) Center panel for IES, as well as a panel member for the National Science Foundation (NSF).
He received a B.S. degree in Geography in 1992 from Peking University. He earned his M.S. in Economics (1998) and his Ph.D. in Higher Education (2000) from Indiana University Bloomington.
Christine Mokher
Professor
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
cmokher@fsu.edu
Dr. Christine G. Mokher is an Associate Professor of Higher Education at Florida State University’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, where she is also a Senior Research Associate with the Center for Postsecondary Success (CPS). Her research utilizes rigorous quasi-experimental analyses to examine state and local policies supporting college readiness and success. She is a What Works Clearinghouse-Certified Reviewer in Group Design.
Dr. Mokher is currently a Co-PI for a $1.5M grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to study Texas House Bill (HB) 2223, which requires all public colleges to implement corequisite developmental education (DE), where underprepared students enroll in introductory math and English courses while receiving DE support. She previously served as the Principal Investigator for a five-year, $4.6 million grant from IES to evaluate Florida’s College and Career Readiness Initiative. She has also been a Co-PI on a multi-year project investigating developmental education reform in Florida, with funding from an IES research grant and from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Dr. Mokher holds a Ph.D. in Education Leadership and Policy from Vanderbilt University and a master’s degree in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard University. Her research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals, including Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Researcher, Teachers College Record, Research in Higher Education, AERA Open, Educational Policy, and The Journal of Higher Education. The findings from her research have also been covered in more widely accessible media outlets such as Forbes, Education Week, Education Daily, Insider Higher Ed, Reuters, and The Hechinger Report. At FSU, she teaches graduate courses in Public Policy of Higher Education and Institutional Research (IR), and serves as the director for the IR certificate program. Prior to coming to FSU, she worked for ten years in policy research at a non-profit organization in the Washington, D.C. area, and also previously worked in IR at Harvard and MIT. More recently, the 2023-2024 Fulbright Scholar Travel to Philippines
Lara Perez-Felkner
Associate Professor
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
@perezfelkner | lperezfelkner@fsu.edu
Dr. Lara Perez-Felkner is an Associate Professor of Higher Education and Sociology in the Higher Education Program within the College of Education at Florida State University. She is also an Affiliated Faculty member in the Department of Sociology, and Senior Research Associate with FSU’s Center for Postsecondary Success. Additional affiliations: the HOPE Center for College, Community, and Justice; Pathways to Adulthood, and Network Gender and STEM.
Her research uses developmental and sociological perspectives to examine how young people’s social contexts influence their college and career outcomes. She focuses on the mechanisms that shape entry into and persistence in institutions and fields in which they have traditionally been underrepresented. In particular, she investigates racial-ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic disparities in post-secondary educational attainment and entry to scientific career fields.
Published work appears in major education and social/behavioral science journals including as well in several edited volumes. She serves on the editorial boards of Educational Researcher, Journal of Higher Education, and Sociology of Education, and has been supported by external funders including the National Science Foundation, the Gates Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. Her research has been covered on podcasts, ABC News and National Public Radio affiliates, the Conversation, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Psychology Today, Science News for Students, and U.S. News and World Report.
Dr. Perez-Felkner has professional experience in Student Affairs as well. At the University of Chicago, she served as a Resident Head in the College and on an NSF AGEP-supported Social Sciences Division Taskforce on Diversity for the Professoriate. Prior to graduate school, she was a post-placement counselor for grade 7-10 students with Prep for Prep, helping underrepresented students transition to magnet schools and private day and boarding college preparatory schools. While earning her B.A. at Wesleyan University, she also worked in residence life, admissions, and student leadership.
At FSU, she has been active in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion work, including service as Co-Chair of the Latinx Faculty and Staff Collective at Florida State, a member of the APLU iChange ASPIRE alliance team, and a member of the President’s Council. She has been putting equity work into practice in research as a WT Grant Institutional Change Mid-Career Fellow, Student Experience Research Network (SERN) Mid-Career Fellow and Institute in Critical Quantitative, Computational, & Mixed Methodologies (ICQCM) NSF Quantitative Critical Methodologies Scholar.
Dr. Perez-Felkner’s graduate courses include Sociology of Education, Higher Education Outcomes Assessment, and Student Development Theory. Impressed by the enthusiasm and caliber of FSU students, she has and continues to mentor and support students in collaborative research on higher education pathways to degrees and careers. She values the integration of teaching, mentoring, and research. Since joining the faculty, she received FSU’s Transformation through Teaching Award in 2014, was a finalist for the FSU College of Education’s Robert M. Gagne Research Award (2015, 2021, 2022), won the 2016 and 2022 Hardee Center Supervisor/Mentor Award, received the 2018-19 FSU Graduate Faculty Mentor Award, 2022 Inclusive Teaching and Advising Award, and the FSU College of Education’s 2021 Graduate Teaching Award.
View Dr. Perez-Felkner’s website
Walter Ecton
Assistant Professor
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
Wecton@fsu.edu
Walter G. Ecton is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida State University. Dr. Ecton’s research lies at the intersections between high school, higher education, and the workforce, and the pathways students take as they navigate those sectors. His work primarily focuses on students who take nontraditional pathways through education, with particular focuses on high school students in career and technical education, students who attend community college, and students who return to education later in life. He aims to produce work that can inform local, state, and federal policy decisions, and that shines light on the importance of equitable access to high quality educational opportunities for all students.
Professor Ecton’s research uses large administrative datasets at the state and federal levels to explore educational and labor market outcomes from students’ participation in education programs. He has been published in journals including Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA), AERA Open, The Journal of Higher Education, Oxford Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance, and the Journal of Applied Research in the Community College, among others, and presents research regularly at the Association for Education Finance and Policy, the Association for Public Policy and Management, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the Association for Career and Technical Education Research.
Prior to joining the faculty at Florida State University, Dr. Ecton was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and received his PhD from Vanderbilt University. He previously worked in new business development for an education technology firm, and as a high school social studies teacher in Atlanta Public Schools.