Dr. Shaun Harper

Over the past three decades, Dr. Shaun Harper has worked with hundreds of higher education institutions across America, including more than 80 California community colleges. Dr. Harper is a Provost Professor in the Rossier School of Education, Marshall School of Business, and Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. He is also the Clifford and Betty Allen Chair in Urban Leadership, as well as the USC Race and Equity Center’s founder and Chief Research Scientist. He was named University Professor in 2022, a distinction bestowed to only 30 of nearly 4,700 full-time USC faculty members.

Dr. Harper has authored 14 books including Racial Equity and Campus Climate at America’s Community Colleges (Routledge, 2026) and over 125 academic papers published in the Community College Journal of Research and Practice, Journal of Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, Harvard Educational Review, and other top peer-reviewed journals. In addition, he has authored nearly 200 articles for The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Rolling Stone, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and other widely-read newspapers and magazines. Dr. Harper created the National Assessment of Collegiate Campus Climates, a suite of quantitative surveys that have been administered to millions of students, faculty, and staff across the country, including more than 60,000 participants at California community colleges.

Dr. Harper is the recipient of dozens of top awards in his fields and six honorary degrees (including a pair from Compton College and Long Beach City College) and has served as president of both the American Educational Research Association and the Association for the Study of Higher Education. He was inducted into the National Academy of Education in 2021 and has been repeatedly recognized in Education Week as one of the field’s 200 (top 1%) most influential scholars; he is currently ranked #3 overall and #1 in education policy. The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, and several hundred other news outlets have quoted Dr. Harper and featured his research. He has been interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, ESPN, PBS NewsHour, and NPR.

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