UW–Madison alumna Bethany Sansing-Helton has received an honorable mention for the 2025–26 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division J Dissertation of the Year Award.
Sansing-Helton earned her PhD in 2025 from the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.
Her dissertation, “Toward a New Theoretical and Empirical Understanding of Faculty Engagement with Data for Racial Equity within Community College Cultures,” examines the systems and structures that shape how community college faculty use data to support continuous improvement. To guide this work, she developed the Community College Faculty Engagement with Data for Inquiry (CC-FEDI) framework and designed a faculty survey to test it.
The findings from Sansing-Helton’s study have the potential to help community colleges strengthen faculty-led efforts to address inequities in student experiences and outcomes — ultimately supporting institutional change.
“Dr. Sansing-Helton’s dissertation makes a significant and timely contribution to higher education research by illuminating how community college faculty engage with data to advance racial equity in their teaching practices,” said Xueli Wang, the Barbara and Glenn Thompson Endowed Professor in Educational Leadership at UW–Madison. Wang noted the dissertation “stands out for its conceptual innovation, methodological rigor, and deep commitment to equity and justice in postsecondary education.”
“It captures the intellectual and moral urgency of transforming institutional cultures to empower those at the heart of community college student learning: faculty,” Wang added.
Sansing-Helton will be honored at the AERA 2026 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.
The AERA Division J Dissertation of the Year Award recognizes outstanding research that advances understanding of postsecondary education and informs policy and practice.
Learn more about AERA Division J: Postsecondary Education.