Stella M. Flores has been appointed Associate Professor of Higher Education at NYU Steinhardt. Flores, who previously was an associate professor of public policy and higher education at Vanderbilt University, also now holds the position of Director of Access and Equity within the Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy.

“Stella Flores is a leading scholar in higher education whose research on critical issues in improving educational opportunity aligns with the core values of our school,” said Dominic Brewer, the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of NYU Steinhardt. “We are very pleased to welcome her to the Steinhardt School and look forward to her scholarship continuing to shape public debate and policy in higher education.”

Flores is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar whose work has focused on college access and admissions, including analysis of approaches to affirmative action; college completion for low-income and underrepresented populations; immigrant students; Minority Serving Institutions and many other questions that are at the forefront of higher education today.  Her research has been published in the leading education journals:  Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Researcher, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, The Review of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, The American Journal of Education, among many others.

She currently serves on the editorial boards of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and The Review of Higher Education. Her work has been cited in the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court Gratz v. Bollinger decision (dissenting opinion) and in various amicus briefs in the Gratz v. Bollinger and the Grutter v. BollingerSupreme Court cases on affirmative action in higher education admissions.

Flores was a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow, and has received research funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The National Academy of Education and the Spencer Foundation.

Flores holds an EdD in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University, an EdM from Harvard University, an MPAff from the University of Texas at Austin, and a BA from Rice University. Prior to joining Vanderbilt in 2007, she served as an evaluator for the U.S. General Accountability Office and a program specialist for the U.S. Economic Development Administration.