OCCRL Staff and Affiliates

Assistant Director for Consulting and Public Engagement

Dr. Raina Dyer-Barr is the Assistant Director for Consulting and Public Engagement for the Office of Community College Research and Leadership. She manages OCCRL’s research projects, procurement and consulting services, and public engagement endeavors. In this role she is the point of contact for OCCRL’s professional development, evaluation, and consulting inquiries and is responsible for overseeing the Office’s various scopes of work from execution of contracts through the successful and timely completion of all deliverables. Dr. Dyer-Barr also contributes to OCCRL’s research portfolio—participating in all phases of the Office’s research agenda from project development to dissemination and utilizes her training in educational policy studies to support the policy analysis work of OCCRL. Her research interest interests broadly include examining the postsecondary experiences of students from historically and traditionally underrepresented and/or underserved groups and addressing the educational equity gaps that exist in both access and outcomes for members of these populations. She is especially interested in the development of targeted pathways between two-and four-year colleges that offer exposure to undergraduate research experiences and graduate education possibilities, that are designed to not only improve timely 2-year transfer rates among underrepresented students, but ultimately contribute to increasing the representation of racially minoritized scholars in the academy as well.

Education

• Ph.D., Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• M.A., Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• B.A., English, University of California at Los Angeles