Dr. Jenay Willis

Jenay F.E. Willis, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Mississippi. She is an alumna of Georgia College & State University having earned a dual Bachelors degree in Sociology and Criminal Justice. Jenay holds a Master of Arts degree in Higher and Postsecondary Education from Teachers College at Columbia University. She earned her Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Pittsburgh.

Jenay identifies as a scholar practitioner in which she often moves what she learns in theory into practice in being an individual who is deeply dedicated to teaching, research, and service. Her research examines and addresses college access, success, transition, matriculation, and graduation at the intersectionality of rurality and Blackness. Driven by her identities as a rural Black student, such informs her scholarship. Through her research she employs youth participatory action research to engage in community driven research with this student population.

Areas of expertise: higher education, rurality, Black education, college access, postsecondary education, qualitative research

Professional associations: Association for the Study of Higher Education, American Educational Research Association, National Rural Education Association