MSU PLS PhD student Aliyah McIlwain wins Outstanding Policy Report

April 18, 2022

The American Educational Research Association announced that the team including PhD student Aliyah McIlwain won the 2022 Division L (Educational Policy & Politics) Outstanding Policy Report for their research on "Partnership Turnaround: Year Three Report."

Along with McIlwain, the authors were Drs. Katherine Strunk, Erica Harbatkin, Samantha Cullum and Chris Torres as well as fellow PhD student Chanteliese Griskell in the College of Education.

The group will be honored at a ceremony Thursday at the Division L annual meeting.

The American Educational Research Association (AERA), a national research society, strives to advance knowledge about education, to encourage scholarly inquiry related to education, and to promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good.

 As a policy major, Aliyah's research interests include urban politics, local government, evaluation of government, explorations of race and class, and education policy.

She currently works as a research assistant in the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC) in the Michigan State College of Education evaluating the Michigan Department of Education Partnership school turnaround model.

Aliyah holds a bachelors degree in both Mathematics and Computer Science from Lincoln University (PA) and a Masters in Political Science from MSU. In addition, she also holds a certificate in Computational Math Science and Engineering from MSU’s CMSE department.