Dr. Kendrick Davis is a science policy and education expert who serves as the Chief Research Officer at the USC Race and Equity Center and Associate Professor at the Rossier School of Education. He is an education researcher and roboticist by training, and his research investigates the educational experiences of underrepresented STEM students and the racialized impacts of science policy. Prior to USC, Kendrick was a STEM policy advisor for two Philadelphia mayors and Vice President Kamala D. Harris when she served in the U.S Senate. He consults on several National Science Foundation (NSF) projects and was recognized as a 2021 Emerging Scholar by Diverse publication.

Description: Institutions of higher education are struggling to effectively understand students’ needs, perceptions, and experiences in the rapidly-changing recovery and reopening period. COVID-19 simultaneously laid bare fault lines in government and institutional resources, workforce policies and capabilities, and the growing unrest of racial tension. Increasingly, faculty and higher education administrators find themselves squeezed between the new and growing demands of students, families, and policymakers - often without the benefit of the training, networks, or resources required to achieve success - if success has even been defined. This session aims to understand better the needs and challenges of the Purdue STEM faculty community and bridge the connection between the faculty and students’ perspectives and experiences. Dr. Kendrick Davis will share STEM faculty perspectives from USC’s Racial Equity Leadership Academy and summary anonymized student feedback from the prior session.

This discussion is hosted by the Network for Computational Nanotechnology. NCN operates nanoHUB.org through funding provided by The National Science Foundation under Grant No. EEC-1227110.Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this discussion are those of the speaker(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.