Professional service to one’s institution, community, and field is an important part of being an educational leader and is expected of faculty members working at institutions of higher education. We are a professional service organization that receives institutional resources and support from UCEA to carry out our mission. While not faculty, as Council members, we are committed to developing opportunities for ourselves and others to practice professional service and lead in a variety of endeavors.
Members of the GSC coordinate their work across three committees: Graduate Student Summit, Researcher Development Program, and Communications.
While each GSC member serves on one committee, all council members participate in monthly meetings of the full GSC, guiding the ongoing mission of the GSC and supporting the needs of upcoming programming.
2022 - 2025 cohort
Caroline Bartlett is an IES predoctoral fellow and PhD student in Education Policy and K-12 Educational Administration at Michigan State University. Her research explores how policy inputs and policy implementation shape educational opportunities for underserved groups of students, particularly multilingual students identified as English learners. In addition to serving on the UCEA GSC, she is a student editor at American Educational Research Journal.
2022 - 2025 cohort
Mario Jackson is a doctoral candidate in the Education Leadership, Policy, and Human Development program at North Carolina State University. His research attends to the intersection of equity and social justice, and leadership preparation, crisis leadership, and K-12 educational policies.
2023 - 2026 cohort
Annie Gensterblum is a PhD student in Education Policy at Michigan State University. Focusing on power dynamics and who has voice within local governance, Annie’s research focuses on parent groups and participation in school board meetings and elections.
2023 - 2026 cohort
Johnathon Jerman is a second-year doctoral student in Education Policy and Leadership Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research centers around 1) superintendent turnover and attrition 2) prohibited concepts in education, and 3) gender and racial gaps in K-12 educational leadership. Jerman also serves a member of the International School Leadership Development Network, a senator for the University of Tennessee Graduate School, and an eVOLve mentor for the Thornton Athletics Student Life Center.
2022 - 2025 cohort
Dave Osworth is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Leadership, Learning Design, and Inquiry at the University of South Carolina. His research agenda centers equity and educational leadership and policy. He specifically studies school takeover, school discipline, and district-university partnerships.
2023 - 2026 cohort
Benjamin Lebovitz is PhD student in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis and an IES predoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their research focuses on the intersection of education policy and LGBTQ+ student and educator identity, wellbeing, and belonging.
2022 - 2025 cohort
Jeffrey Wooten is a Ph.D. student in the Education Leadership, Policy, and Justice program at Virginia Commonwealth University. His primary research agenda focuses on K-12 school integration, segregation, and rezoning. More specifically, he is interested in how schools can provide more equitable long-term outcomes for students with more equitable and diverse educational settings.
2023 - 2026 cohort
Dayna Muñiz is a doctoral candidate in the Educational Leadership program at Temple University's College of Education and Human Development. Her research interests center on equity-focused school leadership, the superintendency, organizational change, the experiences of minoritized educational leaders, the equity director Committee and its evolution, and understanding schools as racialized organizations. She also serves as the Associate Director of the Coalition for Educational Equity at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education.