“The Equity in Graduate Education Consortium is pleased to announce Annie Wofford and Sara Xayarath Hernández as its new Co-Directors, marking a new chapter in the Consortium’s effort to build capacity for improving graduate education nationwide.“
READ THE FULL PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT WOFFORD’S NEW LEADERSHIP ROLE by clicking here.
New Editorial Board Member: Research in Higher Education
Research in Higher Education is a leading journal in higher education, particularly for cutting-edge quantitative research. I am thrilled to be newly appointed to their editorial board (2026-present). I look forward to shepherding new scholarship through the publication process, as journal service is one of the most important types of service for advancing new knowledge.
Access recent publications in RIHE by clicking here.
New Editorial Board Member: Journal of Diversity in Higher Education
The Journal of Diversity in Higher Education is a top-tier academic journal in higher education, and I am honored to be newly appointed to their editorial board (2025-2027). It is a privilege to serve in this capacity and facilitate publication opportunities for new, equity-focused scholarship in our field!
Access recent publications in JDHE by clicking here.
Wofford Named Associate Director of the Equity in Graduate Education Consortium
I am honored and excited to be named Associate Director for the Equity in Graduate Education (EGE) Consortium, a national research-practice partnership and learning community that cultivates sustainable models for equitable change in graduate-level admissions, mentoring, and selection systems. Specifically, Dr. Wofford will be working with five new partner institutions to provided scaffolded development and training structures for change related to mentoring and wellbeing in graduate education. Read more about EGE here: https://equitygraded.org/
Funding for the expansion of EGE is provided by the alfred P. sloan foundation (PI: Dr. Julie Posselt)
Dissertation of the Year: American Educational Research Association (AERA), Graduate and Postdoctoral Education Across the Disciplines
At the latest AERA annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois (April 2023), and with a grateful heart, I accepted the Dissertation of the Year award from the Special Interest Group (SIG 168) for Graduate and Postdoctoral Education Across the Disciplines. My dissertation research was completed in 2021, and through this work I was able to contribute to the growing body of research on shaping equitable collegiate computing environments. I am especially honored to have met and formed relationships with the incredible doctoral student mentors that participated in my qualitative data collection, all of whom expanded my own thinking about what it means to be an equity-minded mentor.
To read the peer-reviewed publications from my dissertation, please visit my publications page.
Recipient of Grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
I am incredibly delighted to share the announcement of a new mixed methods project, “Aligning Graduate Education and Workforce Opportunities: A Robust, Equity-Focused Landscape Scan of Computing Terminology.” With support from the Sloan Foundation Technology Program, our team (led by PI: Dr. Annie M. Wofford; Co-PIs: Dr. Lara Perez-Felkner, Dr. Bret Staudt Willet) will explore the (mis)alignment of computing-related terminology between graduate degrees in computing-related fields at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) and the language used in job ads for academic and tech industry positions. We see language as a possible barrier to racial equity in computing, and we look forward to partnering with MSIs to uplift the talented master’s and doctoral graduates that may be currently missed in hiring processes due to potential variation between how computing degrees/skillsets are named and how job ads are written.
AWARD AMOUNT: $249,978
Read more by clicking here.
New Beginnings: Professional Transition to Florida State University as an Assistant Professor of Higher Education
I am absolutely delighted and humbled to announce that I am now a tenure track Assistant Professor in the Higher Education program at Florida State University! I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, the opportunity to partner with the Center for Postsecondary Success, and to be an equity advocate in the larger university community. Go Noles!
READ MORE ABOUT THE ELPS DEPARTMENT HERE.
Recipient of Research Accelerator Grant, funded by the National Science Foundation and in partnership with the Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN) Research Hub
I am honored to be awarded an IGEN Research Accelerator grant and be the Principal Investigator of an upcoming project, “Facilitating Equity-Minded Mentoring Relationships in STEM Graduate Education.” With this opportunity, I will be a funded affiliate with the Research Hub of the Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN) and receive support from the National Science Foundation. This project is designed as a research-practice partnership, one that both aims to disseminate empirical findings from my dissertation and co-construct translational tools for equity-minded change to mentorship in STEM graduate education. More to come!
AWARD AMOUNT: $5,000
New Professional Role as Postdoctoral Scholar at Northern Arizona University
After successfully defending my dissertation in May 2021 and becoming a newly-minted Ph.D., I began a new professional role as a Postdoctoral Scholar at Northern Arizona University! My new position allows me to work with Dr. Jennifer M. Blaney on a mixed-methods study (NSF #2044858) exploring the pathways from community college transfer to Ph.D. programs in computing disciplines, with the ultimate goal of diversifying representation in the computing professoriate.
Read more about THIs Project here.
Recipient of Collaborative Research Grant from Division D of the American Educational Research Association (AERA)
Collaboratively with Dr. Christa E. Winkler (Assistant Professor in Student Affairs & Higher Education, Mississippi State University), I am thrilled to share that we have been funded by AERA to conduct a new research project! Our mixed methods study, “Uncovering the Epistemological and Methodological Nuances of ‘QuantCrit’ Applications in Higher Education Research” was funded by Division D and will be presented at the AERA annual meeting in 2022.
AWARD AMOUNT: $5,000
ANNIE M. WOFFORD, PH.D. 