Jerome E. Morris, the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of Urban Education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, has been voted president-elect of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Morris joins the AERA Council in 2025–2026 as president-elect, and his presidency begins at the conclusion of the association’s 2026 Annual Meeting.
Morris leverages his upbringing in public housing and attending predominantly Black public schools in Birmingham, Alabama, to inform his research, which examines the intersection of race, social class, and the geography of educational opportunity, focusing on the U.S. South. A former middle school teacher and founder of a rites of passage program, Morris’s conceptual frameworks emphasize the need for authentic partnerships with historically marginalized people and low-resource communities and schools. His latest book, Central City’s Joy and Pain: Solidarity, Survival, and Soul in a Birmingham Housing Project (University of Georgia Press) melds historical and sociological analysis with poignant memoir, capturing public housing residents’ efforts to sustain their community amid the harsh realities of housing and educational inequities. Morris’s nearly three-decade career includes serving as a tenured professor at the University of Georgia (UGA) and a Fellow at UGA’s Institute for Behavioral Research.
Morris also authored the book Troubling the Waters: Fulfilling the Promise of Quality Public Schooling for Black Children (Teachers College Press) and has published in leading research journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, Review of Research in Education, and Teachers College Record. Highly engaged with AERA since 1995, Morris was inducted as an AERA Fellow in 2022, elected Division G’s vice-president for 2020–2023, elected to AERA’s Executive Board, and served as Council liaison to AERA’s Journal Publications Committee. His research initiatives have garnered funding from several distinguished organizations, including the Spencer Foundation’s Lyle Research Award to Transform Education and AERA’s grants program.
Upon becoming AERA president in 2026, Morris will succeed Maisha T. Winn, the Excellence in Learning Graduate School of Education Professor at Stanford University and faculty director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning’s Equity in Learning initiative. Winn will assume the AERA presidency on April 27 at the close of the association’s 2025 Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado.
Key Members Elected to AERA Council
Along with Morris as president-elect, association members elected several new AERA Council representatives.
Council Members-at-Large
Two prominent scholars were elected to member-at-large positions on the AERA Council, commencing in 2025–2026. They will serve three-year terms.
- Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Teachers College, Columbia University
- Dawn Williams, Howard University
Division Vice Presidents-Elect
Four education researchers were voted as division vice presidents-elect and will join AERA’s 2026–2027 Council, following the 2026 Annual Meeting. They will serve three-year terms.
- Division B – Curriculum Studies:
Roland Sintos Coloma, Wayne State University
- Division F – History and Historiography:
Yoon Pak, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Division G – Social Context of Education:
Thandeka K. Chapman, University of California–San Diego
- Division H – Research, Evaluation, and Assessment in Schools:
Jennifer L. Whitson, Alexandria City Public Schools
Special Interest Groups (SIG) Executive Committee
Omi Salas-SantaCruz, University of Utah, was elected chair-elect of the SIG Executive Committee. Salas-SantaCruz will serve as chair-elect in 2025–2026, and their two-year term as chair will commence at the conclusion of the 2026 Annual Meeting. While chair, Salas-SantaCruz will serve as a member of AERA Council.
Graduate Student Council
Edith P. Middleton, a doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University, was voted chair-elect of the Graduate Student Council and will join the AERA Council in 2026–2027.
Complete 2025 AERA election results are posted on the AERA website.