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Will (he/they) is a Ph.D. student in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has worked in public education, college access, and community organizing for over 10 years in Minnesota and Tennessee. Will seeks to create more affirming educational systems for gender-expansive students and students of color. Their research explores how school systems (the interconnected network of educational policies, practices, physical spaces, and educators), at times, can function as safe havens for students of color and gender-expansive students and, at other times, alienate, retraumatize, and pathologize students and their experiences through racism, cisgenderism, and heterosexism. His research specifically examines how educational leaders (e.g. principals, superintendents, and school board members) navigate complex policy landscapes and lead for gender-expansive students and students of color. Will empowers school communities with the knowledge and tools to create schools with greater racial and gender justice.

Growing up Black, queer, and hard-of-hearing informs Will’s commitment to cultivating racial and gender justice in schools. He leverages a human developmental perspective, his personal background, and his professional expertise as a former school counselor to build cross-sector collaborations, foster systemic change, and humanize education. He previously earned B.A. degrees in English and Theater from Macalester College and an M.Ed. in Human Development Counseling from Vanderbilt University. They worked as a high school counselor, advised their school’s Gender & Sexuality Alliance, and facilitated racial and gender equity trainings to educators across Tennessee.

Publications

Stein, A. M., Kennedy, B., French, W., & McQuillan, M. T. (in press). Educational interbelonging: Connecting queer and trans approaches to care-based learning in school systems. Review of Educational Research [Special Issue]. (Peer-Reviewed Journal Article)

Stein, A. M., French, W. M. H., McQuillan, M. T., & Mayo, C. (2026). Marginalized populations as targets of incivility: The case of queer and trans educators. In K. Lasater, K. N. LaVenia, & J. W. Koschoreck (Eds.), Incivility and workplace toxicity in P-12 schools: The causes, costs, and solutions for educational leaders (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003503002 (Peer-Reviewed Book Chapter)

French, W., Şenel, A. K., & Anonymous. (2026). Scholars Strategy Network (SSN): A bridge that connects researchers and policymakers for research-informed policies. In E. Aydarova, T. J. Brewer, E. M. Hodge, & S. J. Salloum, Manufactured outrage: The conservative industrial complex’s war on education and how to fight back. Harvard Education Press. (Contributed Book Chapter)

McQuillan, M. T., Lebovitz, B., Gill, E. K., French, W., & Juchems, B. (2025). Wisconsin PK-12 school board policies concerning LGBTQ+ students. GSAFE. https://gsafewi.org/wp-content/uploads/Wisconsin-School-Board-Policy-Brief-1.pdf (Research & Policy Report)

Stein, A. M. & French, W. (2026). Educational interbelonging: Connecting queer and trans approaches to care-based learning in school systems [Symposium]. 2026 American Educational Research Association, Los Angeles, CA, United States.

French, W. (2026). Racialized becoming in educational worlds: Sociogeny and the production of the human, from Fanon to Jackson [Conference presentation]. 2026 Educational Policy Studies Conference – The Currents of Education: Ebbs & Flows Across Time & Space, Madison, WI, United States. (Conference Presentations)

Teaching

ELPA 890, Applied Research in Educational Administration: created policy briefs, co-presented webinar series about engaging with local school boards with GSAFE (local nonprofit).

Awards

UCEA Barbara L. Jackson Scholar

University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA); Rainbow Leadership Award

Gender & Sexuality Campus Center, University of Wisconsin – Madison