Senior Professorial Lecturer of Education Policy and Leadership at American University
About
Robert Simmons is a senior professorial lecturer of education policy and leadership at American University. As a faculty member in the graduate program (MEd and EdD), Robert's research focuses on the experiences of Black educators and urban education. Having previously served as a associate professor of urban education and executive director of the Center for Innovation in Urban Education at Loyola University Maryland, Robert has been a fellow with the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation and the Fulbright Memorial Program. A former middle school science teacher in the Detroit Public Schools, Robert was nominated twice as the Walt Disney National Teacher of the Year and once for the Whitney and Elizabeth MacMillan Foundation Outstanding Educator Award. Robert has had his work published in such places as the Journal of African American Males in Education, Urban Education and the International Journal of Critical Pedagogy.
Current Work:
Robert's current scholarship explores the experiences of Black educators as they navigate education systems. Additionally, he has collaborated with colleagues to conduct research on the experiences of Black students in community colleges. In collaboration with two of his doctoral students, they are conducting a study of how Black educators are experiencing Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement in urban communities; and working to understand how doctoral students of color experience online EdD programs.
Research Keyword(s):
Black educators; urban education; education leadership; education policy
