Na’ilah Suad Nasir Elected to Lead the American Educational Research Association

Na’ilah Suad Nasir has been voted president-elect of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Nasir joins the AERA Council this year as president-elect. Her presidency begins at the conclusion of the 2021 annual meeting.

Currently, Dr. Nasir is the sixth president of the Spencer Foundation. The Spencer Foundation has been a leading funder of education research since 1971. According to the group’s website, it is the only national foundation focused exclusively on supporting education research.

Prior to her appointment to lead the Spencer Foundation in 2017, Dr. Nasir served as the vice-chancellor of equity and inclusion at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she also held the Birgeneau Chair in Educational Disparities. Professor Nasir joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 2008 after teaching at Stanford University.

Dr. Nasir’s research focuses on issues of race, culture, and learning. She is the author or editor of several books including Mathematics for Equity: A Framework for Successful Practice (Teachers College Press, 2014) and We Dare Say Love: Supporting Achievement in the Educational Life of Black Boys (Teachers College Press, 2018).

Dr. Nasir is a graduate of the Univesity of California, Berkeley, where she majored in social welfare and psychology. She holds a Ph.D. in psychological studies in education from the University of California, Los Angeles.