Laura W. Perna is Vice Provost for Faculty, GSE Centennial Presidential Professor of Education, and Executive Director of the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy (AHEAD) at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). She has served as president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, vice president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and chair of Penn's Faculty Senate. Her research focuses on identifying how social structures, educational practices, and public policies promote and limit college access and success, particularly for groups that are underrepresented in higher education. Recent publications include Improving research-based knowledge of college promise programs (with Edward Smith, 2020, AERA), Taking it to the streets: The role of scholarship in advocacy and advocacy in scholarship (2018, Johns Hopkins University Press) and The Attainment Agenda: State policy leadership for higher education (with Joni Finney, 2014, Johns Hopkins University Press). She has provided invited testimony to the U.S. Senate's Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee and U.S. House of Representatives. Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training. She is a member of the National Academy of Education, Fellow of AERA, and recipient of ASHE's Early Career Achievement Award, Penn's Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching, and National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators’ Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award. She holds a BS in economics and B.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and MPP (public policy) and PhD (education) from the University of Michigan.