Jaime Lester

Jaime Lester, Associate Professor of Higher Education, George Mason University, holds a Ph.D. and M.Ed. in higher education from the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. Dr. Lester also holds a dual B.A. from the University of Michigan in English and Women’s studies. She has received numerous awards for her research and teaching to include the Barbara Townsend Emerging Scholar Award from the Council for the Study of Community Colleges in 2009 and the Mason Excellence in Teaching Award in 2013. She was also the Mason state council rising star nominee in 2011. Dr. Lester is the Editor of Community College Review and serves on the Editorial Board of Journal of Diversity in Higher Education and NASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education.

The overarching goal of her research program is to examine organizational change and leadership in higher education. This focus has led to examinations of non-positional leadership and tactics to promote local and institutional change and the role of individual identity in creating equitable workplaces in colleges and universities. Her more recent research on learning analytics and pedagogy in computer science is funded by the National Science Foundation (#1444789) and Google. The aim of this research is to create and promote new data-driven evidence to promote changes in pedagogy, instructional practice, and leadership decision-making.

Dr. Lester has over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and other academic publications. Her work appears in the Community College Review, Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Community College Journal of Research and Practice, Liberal Education, Feminist Formations (formerly NMSA Journal), and NEA: Thought & Action. She also has five books on gendered perspectives in community colleges, family-friendly policies in higher education, ways to restructure higher education to promote collaboration, non-positional leadership, and workplace bullying. Her work is widely quoted in media outlets such as National Public Radio, New York Times, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Find her on twitter @ProfJaimeLester