Northwestern University’s Carol D. Lee Selected to Lead the National Academy of Education

Carol D. Lee, professor emerita in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, was named president-elect of the National Academy of Education. She will serve for one year as president-elect before becoming president for a four-year term in November 2021. A highly prestigious organization limited to 200 U.S. members, the National Academy of Education is dedicated to advancing high-quality education research and its use in policy formulation.

Dr. Lee, who served as Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Education and Social Policy and as a professor of African American studies, is best known in academia for her work helping minority students excel in an environment of low expectations, poverty, negative stereotypes, and other barriers. She became professor emerita in 2019.

Professor Lee is a past president of the American Educational Research Association. She is the author of two books, Culture, Literacy and Learning: Taking Bloom in the Midst of the Whirlwind (Teachers College Press, 2007) and Signifying as a Scaffold for Literary Interpretation: The Pedagogical Implications of an African American Discourse Genre (National Council of Teachers of Education, 1993).

Dr. Lee is a graduate of the University of Illinois, where she majored in secondary school English education. She earned a master’s degree in English and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Chicago.