PhD, 2013 Mary Milan Deupree is currently the owner of Milan Deupree Interior Designs, where she creates warm, intuitive, deeply personal design with a devotion to detail and craftsmanship. While at earning her doctorate at the McBee IHE, she worked with Dr. Erik Ness as a graduate research associate, supporting multiple projects regarding research utilization and the public policy process. Mary also worked on a TIAA CREF-sponsored project with Dr. Jim Hearn researching emerging changes in faculty career contexts; together, they published two policy reports on the topic. Mary’s dissertation explored the “demand-side” of research utilization by examining the extent to which the policymaking environment impacts research use as state policymakers craft undocumented student tuition policy. With her dissertation, Mary also explored the extent to which the Advocacy Coalition Framework explains the higher education policy process in three states. Mary has presented papers at meetings of the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the American Educational Research Association. Her graduate coursework focused on higher education policy, higher education finance, academic governance, organizational theory, theories of the policymaking process, qualitative methods, and institutional advancement. Mary earned her M.S.Ed. in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania, and her B.A. in History from North Carolina State University, with a minor in Political Science. Between degrees, she worked as Assistant Director of the Park Scholarships program at North Carolina State University.
