Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Bio: Dr. Meredith S. Billings is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at The University of Texas at Arlington. Her overall research agenda focuses on financial and informational barriers to college for low-income, first-generation, and racially minoritized students and inequities in higher education funding across different types of higher education institutions. She is currently conducting or has conducted research projects on free college/promise programs, guaranteed tuition/fixed tuition plans, college access programs, and financial aid advising in public high schools. Dr. Billings is also interested in state higher education funding decisions during economic downturns and how state policymakers justify their decisions on how to fund institutions and students during these times. She has published her research in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Journal of Student Financial Aid, American Behavioral Scientist, New Directions for Community Colleges, and Journal of General Education. Her work has been supported by the Spencer Foundation and the Kresge Foundation. Dr. Billings spent six years working in higher education administration in the areas of institutional research, undergraduate admissions, academic advising, and civic engagement. Prior to coming to UTA, she was an Assistant Professor in Educational Leadership at Sam Houston State University and a Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Associate at the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia. Dr. Billings teaches or has taught courses on K-16 education policy, K-16 legal studies, higher education finance, program evaluation, assessment, and statistics. She earned a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Michigan, M.A. in higher education from the University of Maryland, and B.S. in neuroscience from William and Mary.

Research Interests: Multi-tiered systems of support and equity, disproportionality, equity, behavioral disorders : Ambra L. Green, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Special Education within the College of Education at The University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Green is a national scholar with publications and research focused on students of color with and at-risk for disabilities, issues related to inequitable school practices experienced by students of color (i.e., disproportionality in special education and discipline practices), behavior disorders, positive behavioral interventions and supports, and teacher use of evidence-based practices. She is the Primary Investigator on a $1.1 million U.S. Department of Education Office for Special Education Programs (OSEP) personnel preparation grant which provides rigorous training for master’s special education and social work students to support K-12 students with disabilities and high intensity needs. Dr. Green also has experience working within the U.S. Department of Education Office for Special Education Programs (OSEP) and serves on the OSEP National Technical Assistance Center on PBIS Equity workgroup  Dr. Green was a special educator at the middle school level and a PBIS Coach. She holds current teacher certifications in EC-6 Generalist, 4-8 Generalist, and EC-12 Special Education in the state of Texas. 

Bio: Dr. Ericka Roland is an assistant professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department at The University of Texas at Arlington. Her research examines the process of social justice/criticality development in postsecondary education institutions. Dr. Roland has three interconnected lines of inquiry: (1) Program development and practices, (2) Leadership development, and (3) Personal and collective development around equity and social justice. She centers the pursuit of equity in all of her projects with a commitment to research and practice that cultivates transformative possibilities. Dr. Roland uses critical & Black feminist theoretical and qualitative methodologies approaches in her research inquiries. Prior to entering academia, she worked as a student affairs professional in residential life and Greek life.

Bio: Dr. Maria Trache is a professor in the College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies since August 2011, following 14 years as Statistical Consultant and Research Manager at the University of British Columbia and over 15 years as a faculty at the University of Bucharest. She brings over 30 years of combined teaching and research experience from both science and social sciences to UTA. As an educational researcher, Dr. Trache focuses on equity issues in higher education and the labor market by examining the effects of structural differences at the intersection of gender, race, social class, immigrant status, disability. Her research is informed by theoretical frameworks from sociology, economics of education, and life course research. She has expertise in advanced quantitative methods, survey methods and analysis of large-scale survey data. Dr. Trache is author/co-author of about 45 publications in peer-reviewed journals, edited books, working paper series. She currently serves as a member on the Sociology/Demography Insight Grants Selection Committee for the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Bio: Dr. Yi Leaf Zhang is a Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. Zhang has developed a strong interest in studying college access and success, especially in the community college context. Her research focuses on community colleges as a gateway to STEM education, transfer students’ educational pathways, and international education in four-year and two-year institutions. Zhang is currently an editorial board member of the Community College Journal of Research and Practice (CCJRP) and an associate editor of the Journal of International Students (JIS).