Dr. Rita J. Kirshstein - Board of Trustee Dr. Rita J. Kirshstein has dedicated much of her professional career studying higher education and ways to ensure access for all students seeking a college education. A Managing Director in the Education and Human Development Program at the American Institutes for Research, Dr. Kirshstein has analyzed a wide range of issues that include financial aid policies at both the national and state levels, the causes and consequences of rising tuitions, faculty roles and responsibilities, and the experiences of students who are deaf and hard of hearing.  In addition, she has examined and evaluated many higher education programs such as the Fund for the Improvement of

Postsecondary Education (FIPSE); a National Science Foundation initiative aimed to increase the representation of minority students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics; teacher preparation initiatives such as the Title II Partnership Program; and TRIO, a federal program that provides educational opportunities to students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Much of her higher education work has focused on the costs of higher education and financial aid policies and programs.  Her work with the National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education resulted in the report, Straight Talk about College Costs and Prices. She has led numerous other studies for the U.S. Department of Education, Congress, and the state of Maryland that have focused on the costs of providing higher education and the escalating prices students and their families must pay.  Recently, she completed a study funded by the Lumina Foundation on financial aid programs that require recipients to work in specified fields in exchange for financial support. This report, Workforce Contingent Financial Aid: How States Link Financial Aid to Employment, was released in February 2004.

In 2003, Dr. Kirshstein formed College Connections, LLC, to assist students in selecting and applying to college.  She also provides these services to DC high school students through the College Information Center , a program of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area.    

Some of Dr. Kirshstein’s work has also focused on education issues in elementary and secondary education.  These projects have covered a range of topics that include the use of technology in the classroom, the teaching of reading, and education in prisons, to name a few.   As a result of this work, she has developed an understanding of the links between the K-12 and higher education systems in the U.S. and the need for the two systems to work together to solve education and community problems.  

Dr. Kirshstein has been a faculty member at both the University of Virginia and Buffalo State College. She has authored and co-authored numerous reports and articles, and has served on county commissions, including as chair of a county commission on women’s issues. Currently, she serves on the Board of the Foxfire Fund, an educational and cultural organization with roots in Appalachia .  All of her degrees are in sociology, her B.A. from Emory University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts .