Thong Trinh
PhD Student in Higher Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Full Profile
Thong Trinh was an Edwin J. O'Leary Fellow and currently pursuing a Doctorate study in Higher Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He also affiliates with the EdLab Asia Centre for Education Research and Development as a researcher. His research interest is Higher Education Policy with a focus on Finance. Thong has published in the areas of student willingness to pay, university budgeting, and related topics of higher education policy. He also served as a peer reviewer for some WOS and Scopus journals in the field of Education.
Thong was a Strathclyde Business School Dean's Excellence Scholarship and got his MSc in Business Analysis and Consulting from University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom in 2022. He also earned a BSc with distinction in International Business in Vietnam. In 2019, he was awarded the Certificate for the graduate valedictorian from the Hai Phong Mayor.
Check out his latest article on University World News: Tuition fees: Finding a balance between quality and access
Sean Reeder
Sean's career in higher education spans nearly 20 years. Sean is currently the Vice Chancellor of Finance at the University of Missouri Kansas City and has served in a similar role at Eastern Illinois University. Prior to these roles, Sean was the Assistant Vice President of Capital Programs and Utility Services for the University of Illinois System, as well as in other roles related to technology development at Michigan State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Research interests align with financial interests and fiscal health and policy of public institutions of higher education and his thesis is on capital investment across public universities.
T. Jameson Brewer
T. Jameson Brewer, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Social Foundations of Education at the University of North Georgia. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was named as the 2016 Outstanding Doctoral Student. Jameson served as the O’Leary Fellow from 2013-2016 under Dr. Christopher Lubienski who served as Director of the Forum on the Future of Public Education. He currently serves as a Fellow at the National Education Policy Center, a Fellow at the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, a Scholar at the Scholar’s Strategy Network, and as associate editor of the Journal of Educational Foundations. Broadly conceptualized, Jameson’s research focuses on the impact of privatization and marketization of public education by way of school vouchers, charter schools, alternative teacher certification, and homeschooling. Follow him on Twitter: @tjamesonbrewer
Maria Claudia Soler
Maria Claudia Soler is a doctoral student in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership program with a concentration in Higher Education. She holds a MA in International Education and Policy Analysis from Stanford University, an MA in Clinical Psychology, and a BA in Psychology from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia. Maria Claudia’s previous professional experiences include serving as a career counselor, college lecturer, and counselor for a non-profit organization that provides support to Latin-American women in London. She also spent nearly four years developing the admission and development programs at Lumni, a company that provides higher education financing through Income Share Agreements in Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Chile, and the U.S. Maria Claudia’s research interests include higher education access and success policies, especially those related to college choice, financial aid, student support programs, and career pathway models. She is part of a research team working on a project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that seeks to facilitate the implementation of “reverse transfer” degree policies and programs. Maria´s most current research focuses on understanding the determinants of the take-up of Income Share Agreements (ISAs) and the potential impacts of ISAs on different college outcomes such as access, attainment, and completion.
Terry Vaughan III
Terry Vaughan III is the Vice President of Research and Director of the Pell Institute at the Council for Opportunity in Education located in Washington D.C. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2017. Prior to joining and completing his Ph.D., he was also a participant in UIUC’s Summer Pre-Doctoral Institute (SPI) and Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP). He currently works nationally to explore, understand, and advocate for equity within higher education with a focus on students from low-income and historically marginalized backgrounds.