Melissa Whatley

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Ph.D. 2019

Melissa Whatley is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in William and Mary's School of Education. Dr. Whatley's research applies mixed methods and advanced quantitative approaches to explore policies and practices that diversify both who accesses international education and the outcomes of these opportunities, especially within the context of U.S. community colleges.

Whatley is author of An Introduction to Quantitative Analysis for International Educators (Springer, 2022) and co-editor of Digital Internationalization in Higher Education: Moving Beyond Virtual Exchange (Routledge, 2023). Her research has been published in the Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Review of Education Research, Journal of Studies in International Education, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education, Community College Review, Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, Journal of Mixed Methods Research, New Directions for Community Colleges, Education Policy Analysis Archives, and Journal of Student Financial Aid. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Critical Internationalization Studies Review and serves on the editorial board of Research in Higher Education.

Previously, Whatley served as an Assistant Professor of International & Global Education at the School for International Training's Graduate Institute. She also conducted research on the community college campus outcomes and culture as a postdoctoral scholar at North Carolina State University's Belk Center. 

In 2023, Whatley received the NAFSA Innovative Research in International Higher Education Award. She was the 2018 recipient of the Association of International Education Administrators' Harold Josephson Award for Professional Promise in International Education and was also recipient of the Institute of Higher Education's Thomas G. Dyer Outstanding Dissertation Research Award (2017-18) and Zell and Shirley Miller Fellowship (2018-19).

She earned Bachelors of Arts in Romance Languages, Spanish, and Linguistics and a Master's of Arts in Romance Languages from the University of Georgia.

Email:
melwhat@uga.edu
News Featuring Melissa Whatley

Bryan McAllister-Grande and Melissa Whatley (PhD 2019) produced a white paper for NAFSA entitled "International Higher Education Research: State of the Field."

Melissa Whatley (PhD 2019) and Amy Stich study inequalities in access to study abroad opportunities. Their latest research findings are published in The Journal of Higher Education online.

Melissa Whatley's paper, "Study Abroad Participation: An Unintended Consequence of State Merit-Aid Programs?" appears in Research in Higher Education Online First.

In addition to the large group of IHE faculty and students who presented papers at the AERA conference in Toronto (April 5-8), Noble Jones (PhD 2018) received the 2019 Outstanding Dissertation Award from AERA's Division J, and Associate Professor Tim Cain…

IHE faculty and students will be attending the 44th Annual AEFP Conference in Kansas City, MO on March 21-22, 2019.

Ph.D. candidate Hee Jung Gong will present a paper with Rob Toutkoushian on “The Impact of the TRIO Program on the College Choice…

IHE postdoctoral associate Meredith Billings and doctoral student Melissa Whatley were selected as fellows for the 2019 NCES Data Institute: Using Federal Datasets to Support Research on Postsecondary Education. The institute provides an intensive introduction…

Ph.D. student Melissa Whatley is published in the graduate student research-in-progress section of the winter 2019 issue of the Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education. Her brief, "Who Studies Abroad at US Community Colleges?"…

Four doctoral students in the Institute of Higher Education received awards at a luncheon hosted by IHE on September 24th.

Three doctoral students in the Institute of Higher Education were honored at a special awards luncheon hosted by IHE on October 6, 2017.