NCID-1979
Kathleen E. Gillon
Assistant Professor of Higher education
University of Maine
Education/Degree:
1 Education (Iowa State University)
About
Kathleen E. Gillon, PhD is an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Maine. Her research and teaching interests focus broadly on access and equity in higher education. She is especially interested in the role of place in the facilitation of college-going for rural students and communities. Dr. Gillon has been published in a variety of scholarly and practitioner focused publications, including the Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Critical Scholarship in Higher Education and Student Affairs, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, and New Directions for Student Services.Dr. Gillon is also an active member of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), American Educational Research Association (AERA), and ACPA (College Student Educators International) where she has served on the directorate boards for the Commission for Admissions, Orientation and First Year Experience, and the Coalition for Women's Identities. Prior to earning her doctorate, Dr. Gillon worked at Stony Brook University in New York in a variety of areas related to student success, including academic advising, first-year experience, new student orientation and family programs, and honors programs.
Current Work
Dr. Gillon's research explores issues of equity for students and communities who have historically and systemically been prevented from accessing and succeeding in postsecondary education. She has a specific interest in understanding how racism, classism, and genderism contribute to inequitable college-going practices, especially for rural students and communities. She is currently engaged in two research projects. The first project qualitatively explores the role of families in the decision-making process and transition to college for rural college students. The second project (in collaboration with Dr. Ashley N. Stone) is a comprehensive methodological review that uses critical place inquiry to examine how place-bound higher education scholarship has and has not accounted for the geographic, historical, and sociocultural context of the place in which the research is situated through research design and data analysis. Using Shaun Harper's (2012) work as a guide, Gillon and Stone have catalogued and analyzed over 3,000 articles from the past decade (2008-2017) that appear in the seven journals that "publish most of the empirical research on postsecondary education" (p. 13). These journals include The Review of Higher Education, The Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, Community College Journal of Research and Practice, and Community College Review.
Research Area Keyword(s)
College Access, Equity, higher education, rurality, student success