Jennifer May-Trifiletti is a doctoral candidate in the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education. Her dissertation examines mission expansion in community colleges, including the awarding of baccalaureate degrees and the introduction of campus housing at traditionally two-year, commuter-oriented institutions. She is especially interested in the effects of such changes on access and equity.
Jennifer also works full-time as a Research Project Lead for Studies of Postsecondary Student Success at the University of Michigan, serving on a research team under the direction of Dr. Peter Riley Bahr. She previously worked as a graduate research assistant for MIHE professors Drs. Rob Toutkoushian and Jim Hearn.
Jennifer has presented papers at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), American Educational Research Association (AERA), Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP), Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC), and Association for Institutional Research (AIR).
Her work with Dr. Toutkoushian and former MIHE post-doctoral fellow Dr. Ashley Clayton has been published in Educational Policy, and her work with Dr. Hearn and MIHE alumnus Dr. Welch Suggs has been published by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC).
She has received UGA’s Presidential Fellowship, MIHE’s Zell and Shirley Miller Fellowship, and MIHE’s Thomas G. Dyer Outstanding Dissertation Research Award.
Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Arts in secondary education and history from Boston College, a Master of Arts in higher education from Boston College, and a certificate in institutional research from Pennsylvania State University. Prior to joining MIHE, Jennifer worked in institutional research at Massasoit Community College (Brockton, MA) and Tufts University.
