Dr. Mauriell H. Amechi

Mauriell Amechi, Ph.D. is a foster care advocate, professor, social scientist, and consultant committed to educational equity and improving college outcomes and opportunities for marginalized learners. Amechi's scholarly interests and advocacy center on issues of educational equity, intersectionality, college access, transitions, and persistence to degree completion for underserved student populations. His latest research examines the experiences and educational pathways of transition-age (16 or older) youth and young adults with foster care experience. The National Resource Center on the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, National Association for Campus Activities, and the ACPA Foundation have generously sponsored his scholarship.

Amechi's solo and co-authored publications appear in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, Journal of African American Males in Education, to name a few. In addition to serving on editorial boards for the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice and the Journal of the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, he remains active in professional associations, namely the American Educational Research Association, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, NASPA, and ACPA. He is also a faculty affiliate at the Office of Community College Research and Leadership at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a visiting scholar at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity, and Justice at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

Born and raised in Chicago, the Westside native is a proud alumnus of Chicago Public Schools. Amechi received his B.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and M.A. from Ohio State University. He later earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In his free time, he enjoys international travel, music, sports, cycling, mentoring, and the performing arts.