Meet the Team
Dr. Rich Milner is the Founding Director of the Initiative for Race Research and Justice. He serves as the Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair of Education and Professor of Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt’sPeabody College. Dr. Milner is a researcher, scholar, and leader of urban education and teacher education. Recently, he delivered the fifteenth annual Brown Lecture of the American Educational Research Association. The article is now available in Educational Researcher. The second edition of his widely-read book, Start Where You Are But Don’t Stay There: Understanding Diversity, Opportunity Gaps, and Teaching in Today’s Classrooms was published in 2020.
Dr. Ira Murray is the Associate Director of Research and Development of the Initiative for Race Research and Justice. He is an experienced nonprofit executive, researcher, and urban education scholar. Prior to joining RRJ, he was President & CEO of United Way of the Capital Area in Jackson, MS, where his work primarily focused on early childhood development, education equity, and family economic mobility.
Dr. Dena Lane-Bonds is the Assistant Director for the Initiative for Race Research and Justice. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Missouri. Dena’s research focuses primarily on four areas: homelessness and housing insecurity in higher education; policies and programs that enhance the academic success of marginalized college students; social justice and equity in graduate education; and career development for international students. Her recent study explored how graduate students experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity navigated their education. She has published articles in the Research in Education Journal and the Journal of Negro Education. Prior to joining the University of Missouri, Dena earned a bachelor’s degree in African American and African Diaspora Studies, and Psychology, a minor in Social Science and Medicine, and a certificate in Neuroscience from Indiana University, and her master’s degree in Educational Psychology from Northern Arizona University.
Laura Parks is a Graduate Research Associate for RRJ and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. Laura is pursuing her Ph.D. in Justice and Diversity in Education, and she is interested in student voice, equitable discipline, and teacher preparation – particularly in urban education settings. Her current research aims to study how listening to – and working with – students can improve school culture, disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline, and improve teacher preparation.