Jeffrey Milem

University of California, Santa Barbara

Jules Zimmer Dean and Professor

Jeffrey F. Milem is Professor and Jules Zimmer Dean's Chair of The Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at UC Santa Barbara. Prior to coming to UCSB, he was the Ernest W. McFarland Distinguished Professor in Leadership for Educational Policy and Reform in the College of Education at the University of Arizona. He is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and has been awarded the American College Personnel Association’s Contributions to Higher Education award. Jeff was a Professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education and had an appointment in the Department of Medicine at the University of Arizona. He was Founding Director of the Arizona Medical Education Research Institute (AMERI)—a collaborative venture between the Colleges of Education and Medicine at the University of Arizona that investigates topics pertaining to medical education, diversity, climate and access to medical school. Previously, he served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Education. Jeff served a two year term as a Senior Faculty Fellow at the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity. He is Past President of the Association for the Study of Higher Education—the major professional research organization for scholars of higher education. Before coming to the University of Arizona, Jeff was a faculty member at the University of Maryland and at Vanderbilt University. He earned his B.A. in political science from Michigan State University, his M.Ed. from the University of Vermont, and his Ph.D. from UCLA. Professor Milem’s research focuses on the ways in which colleges and universities can be organized to enhance equity, access, and success for all students; the racial context within higher education; and the relationship between how colleges and universities organize themselves and student outcomes and faculty role performance. With his colleagues Mitchell Chang and Anthony Antonio, he co-authored Making Diversity Work on Campus: A Research Based Perspective, published by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, which translates research demonstrating the educational benefits of diversity to develop a “roadmap” for college leaders of the conditions that must be in place if they are to maximize the opportunities for teaching and learning that racial diversity provides. Jeff contributed to two of the three books that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor cited in her majority opinion in Grutter v. Bollinger as being influential in helping to document the university’s claim regarding the educational benefits of diversity. He also worked closely on amicus briefs for both iterations of the Fisher v. Texas case. As a widely recognized expert in the area of racial dynamics in higher education, Professor Milem has been commissioned to do research by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the Harvard Civil Rights Project, the American Council on Education, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the American Educational Research Association’s Panel on Racial Dynamics in Higher Education. Jeff also worked with the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education and the American Council on Education to present a series of technical assistance workshops on affirmative action and college admissions. Professor Milem has given speeches and/or provided consultation on racial dynamics to different national education organizations as well as various public and private higher education institutions across the country. In addition to his employment in higher education, Jeff has worked as a photographer, janitor, maintenance worker, house painter, landscaper, bartender, cook, and hospital orderly.