Image: IHE doctoral student Karley A. Riffe has been appointed to serve as a Graduate Student Representative for Division J of AERA in 2016-2018. Division J Graduate Student Representatives are dedicated to serving Division J (Postsecondary Education) graduate students and representing Division J within the larger American Educational Research Association (AERA) organization. Currently, Riffe works on an NSF-funded project with Sheila Slaughter, Barrett Taylor and Sondra Barringer to evaluate how university trustees connect AAU institutions to the larger economy and how this has changed over time. Riffe’s own research explores the nature of faculty work and the changing academic profession within different institutional contexts across colleges and universities in the United States. She also served as president of the Institute’s Higher Education Student Society (HESS) during 2015. Founded in 1916, AERA is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and evaluation and by promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results. One of AERA’s goals is to enhance the quality of graduate student participation in the association and the AERA annual meeting through supportive resources and programming efforts. More than 28 percent of AERA members are students—approximately 6,500 graduate students and 500 undergraduate students. The 2017 annual meeting will be held in April in San Antonio, Texas. Type of News/Audience: General News
