Natasha Strassfeld

Natasha Strassfeld is an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education within the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin, where she also serves as a Fellow of the H. E. Hartfelder/The Southland Corporation Regents Chair in Human Resource Development and Area Co-Coordinator of the Special Education Systems Program. She holds a Ph.D. in Special Education from Pennsylvania State University (2013), a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School (2006), and a B.A. in Political Science, magna cum laude, from Centenary College of Louisiana (2003). Prior to joining UT Austin in 2021 as an Assistant Professor, she was an Assistant Professor of Special Education at New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development (2016-2021) and a Postdoctoral Fellow at NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service (2013-2016). She also holds a courtesy appointment at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Her teaching includes courses such as Family Involvement and Engagement in Special Education, Qualitative Methods in Special Education, Race, Law, and Education, and Youth, Disability, and Juvenile Justice.

Dr. Strassfeld's research examines how parents navigate the special education process through legal and policy mechanisms, racial and ethnic disparities in students' identification for special education placements and services, and special education and transition services within the juvenile justice system. She is the author of the forthcoming book Special Education and the Juvenile Legal System: Connecting Policy, Research, and Practice to Address the School-to-Prison Pipeline (Routledge Press). Key publications include Strassfeld, N. M., & Cooc, N. (2024). Disproportionality monitoring for special education and stakeholder practices in a post-affirmative action landscape, Theory into Practice; Voulgarides, C. K., Woulfin, S. L., Strassfeld, N. M., & Meltzer, I. (2024). Consequential intersections: Examining equity expressions and experiences within special education ecosystems, AERA Open; and Strassfeld, N. M., Brady, K., & Dieterich, C. (2023). Expanding law- and policy-relevant discourse within special education research, Journal of Disability Policy Studies. She has secured major funding, including as Principal Investigator on a $3.6 million U.S. Department of Education grant (2024-2029) for Preparing Early Childhood Special Education Researchers for Diverse Settings and as Co-Principal Investigator on a $1.6 million Institute of Education Sciences grant. Additional support comes from the Spencer Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and others. She has served on national committees for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and as a qualitative data expert consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Professional Email: natasha.strassfeld@utexas.edu