Kristen Renn

Kristen Renn is professor of Higher, Adult, & Lifelong Education (HALE) in the Department of Educational Administration at Michigan State University, where she also serves as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies for Student Success research. She teaches courses related to student development, diversity and equity, and education research in the Student Affairs Administration MA program and the HALE MA and PhD programs. Prior to coming to MSU, she was assistant professor of higher education and qualitative research at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, a policy analyst for the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, and, for ten years, a dean in the Office of Student Life at Brown University. A Mount Holyoke College alumna, she received her PhD in Higher Education from Boston College.

Dr. Renn's research interests include student success and persistence, identity and identity development in higher education; mixed race college students; women in higher education in the US and global contexts; and LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) issues in higher education. A grant from the Spencer Foundation supported her international study of women's postsecondary institutions. She is MSU's co-liaison to the University Innovation Alliance and co-PI on several grants related to increasing success for low-income and underrepresented students. Dr. Renn has been Associate Editor for International Research and Scholarship for the Journal of College Student Development, a Senior Scholar of the ACPA-College Student Educators International, and a member of the governing boards of ACPA and the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). In 2018 she received two awards for research on gender and sexuality from the American Education Research Association (AERA). She is a past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education and chairs the AERA standing committee on Scholars and Advocates for Gender Equity.