Dr. Heather McCambly is an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her PhD in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University. As a critical organizational scholar, she focuses on the role of funders, policy, and politics in shaping more (or less) racially just futures in postsecondary education. Dr. McCambly studies the role of organizations in (re)producing systemic, racial inequalities, and draws on a range of analytic and interpretive methods to study the influence of aspiring change agents on institutionalized racial inequities. Her research has been featured in multiple outlets, including Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Policy, the Journal of Higher Education, the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and the Review of Higher Education.
McCambly, H., Liera, R., Rodgers, A., & Park, B.* (2025). Analyzing the purposes and mechanisms of faculty cluster hiring initiatives to promote racial equity. The Journal of Higher Education. 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2025.2546765
McCambly, H. & Peko-Spicer, S.M. (2025). Taking Space for Anti-Racist Research: Learnings from the Margins of Educational Effectiveness. Journal for Research on Educational Effectiveness. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2025.2480553
McCambly, H. & Mulroy, Q. (2024). The Rise of (E)Quality Politics on College Campuses: Then and Now. Change Magazine for Higher Learning. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2022.2078151
McCambly, H., & Mulroy, Q. (2024). Constructing an Educational “Quality” Crisis: (E)quality Politics and Racialization Beyond Target Beneficiaries. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737231189478
McCambly, H., Villanosa, K., Mackevicius, C. (2024). Educational Philanthropy’s “Racial Reckoning” in the Wake of 2020: Understanding Persistence and Change in Grantmakers’ Policy Repertoires. Educational Policy. https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048241263843
