Gloria Ladson-Billings

Gloria Ladson-Billings is Professor Emerita in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she formerly held the Kellner Family Distinguished Chair in Urban Education. She joined the faculty in 1991 as an assistant professor specializing in social studies and multicultural education, becoming the first Black woman to achieve tenure in the School of Education in 1995. Ladson-Billings served on the faculty for over 26 years until her retirement in 2018. She earned a B.S. in education from Morgan State University in 1968, an M.A. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Washington in 1972, and a Ph.D. in curriculum and teacher education from Stanford University in 1984. Throughout her career, she held faculty affiliate positions in the Departments of Educational Policy Studies, Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, and Afro American Studies at UW-Madison. She served as president of the American Educational Research Association from 2005 to 2006 and as editor of the American Educational Research Journal. Ladson-Billings also held leadership roles such as president of the National Academy of Education starting in 2018 and fellowships including the NEA Foundation Fellow for the Achievement Gap Initiative in 2012.

Her research examines the pedagogical practices of teachers successful with African American students and applications of critical race theory to education, pioneering the framework of culturally relevant pedagogy. Key publications include the seminal book The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children (1994), Crossing over to Canaan: The Journey of New Teachers in Diverse Classrooms, and Beyond the Big House: African American Educators on Teacher Education, along with editing multiple volumes, authoring over 100 journal articles and book chapters. Her scholarship has profoundly influenced the field, with work cited more than 116,000 times. Among her numerous honors are the AERA Distinguished Research Award (2018), Social Justice in Education Award (2015), Hilldale Award (2007), honorary degrees from institutions such as Morgan State University (2018) and Umeå University (2002), election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2018), and fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford (2003-2004).

Professional Email: gjladson@wisc.edu