​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Cecilia Orphan

Cecilia Orphan, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Denver. Her research broadly examines the following question: “What are higher education’s purposes in a society that aspires to be democratic?” Cecilia’s research centers on the effects of neoliberal policy discourses on higher education’s public purposes, the role of regional comprehensive universities in facilitating educational opportunity and civic life, and strategies used by administrators and policymakers to promote equity and higher education’s public purposes. From 2006-2011, she directed the American Democracy Project of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. Cecilia holds a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in political science from Portland State University.