ELIZABETH STEARNS is Professor of Sociology and Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. After earning her Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she spent two years as a research faculty member at the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University. She joined the UNC Charlotte faculty in 2005.
Throughout her career, Dr. Stearns has investigated the ways in which educational institutions create, sustain, ameliorate, or exacerbate educational inequalities. She has studied student outcomes including achievement, grade retention, and high school dropout behavior, as well as teacher job satisfaction. Her most recent research focuses on the outcomes for students in higher education, specifically how inequalities throughout their previous histories influence their pathways into and through higher education.
