Dr. Perez-Felkner and her team investigate the structures and supports which can foster postsecondary student success among underrepresented students, especially women, students of color, and low-income students who may also be the first-generation in their family to go to college. This research draws on sociological and life course frameworks to understand constraints and opportunities which can contribute to longer-term outcomes.

Primary Project: The Gendered Community College Pathways to Computing study at Florida State University focuses on investigating gender and other forms of inequality in higher education with large-scale, longitudinal quantitative data, and building on continued graduate research from and related to the candidate’s dissertation. Relevant topics within this study include: • Equity/social justice, with particular attention to gender, race/ethnicity, social class, and geography (urbanicity, region), and their intersections • Community college research, in Florida and nationally • Mathematics, science, and computing course taking in high school and college • High school, community college, and university social contexts • STEM and Career/Technical Education policy and dissemination The fellow would be invited to co-author and lead research articles, analyze large-scale data from the Florida P-20 Educational Warehouse and federal longitudinal data, support on grant reports, and co-mentoring graduate students with respect to literature review, data management and analysis, and writing for publication. There will be opportunities to publish and/or co-publish research and present findings at conferences.

Access to Related Projects: Recent work includes a randomized control study of a rent-free housing intervention at Florida universities, in partnership with the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University. Dr. Perez-Felkner is also a co-PI on an NSF S-STEM grant using experimental and experiential sampling methodology to evaluate the effects of a scholarship-supported mentoring program for broadening participation in Computer Science. She is also an education evaluation and research partner with centers based at Florida A&M University, an HBCU, using mixed methods research to examine how to enhance and sustain underserved students’ engagement in materials science and engineering across their educational life course.