Kimberly A. Griffin, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, EPS

Dr. Kimberly Griffin is an Assistant Professor in the College Student Affairs and Higher Education programs, and Research Associate in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Griffin earned her doctoral degree in Higher Education and Organizational Change from the University of California, Los Angeles, her Master’s degree in Education Policy and Leadership at the University of Maryland, College Park, and her Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in Psychology.

Dr. Griffin's research interests are primarily focused in two areas: the access, experiences, and outcomes of underrepresented communities in higher education; and the influence of relationships on outcomes at critical time points. These interests have led her to conduct work on a variety of topics, including the mentoring relationships in academe, Black professors and their engagement in student interaction, the experiences of Black immigrant college students, diversity recruitment in graduate education, and campus racial climate. Her work has been presented at multiple national meetings and appeared in the Journal of College Student Development, Educational Studies, and the Journal of Negro Education.

She has served as a researcher for the CHOICES project, exploring the multidimensional factors shaping college access for underrepresented students attending Los Angeles high schools and is a co-editor of a volume documenting this work, Towards a Brighter Tomorrow: The College Barriers, Hopes and Plans of Black, Latino/a and Asian American Students in California. In addition, Dr. Griffin was a research analyst for the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, assisting with campus climate survey assessment and development, as well as the creation of structural equation models measuring student development in diverse classrooms. Dr. Griffin has also worked on projects assessing the value and impact of the Gates Millennium Scholars program.

Dr. Griffin's diverse interests and background have provided the opportunity to become skilled in advanced quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as the integration of these strategies in mixed methods research. Prior to completing her doctoral work at UCLA, Dr. Griffin worked in higher education administration, primarily focusing in the areas of diversity recruitment, admissions, and retention at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

kag32@psu.edu
Griffin Vita