Cecilia M Orphan

Cecilia M. Orphan, Ph.D., is an associate professor of higher education at the University of Denver and Founding Co-Director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges. Broadly, her research agenda examines higher education's role in a democratic society. Under this research agenda, she examines regional public universities, rural-serving institutions, and intermediary public policy organizations. From 2006-2011, she directed the American Democracy Project, a national civic engagement initiative of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. Dr. Orphan's research agenda is informed by her experiences as a working class, first-generation college student who received maximum Pell grants to attend college. She holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Political Science from Portland State University, a regional public university in Oregon.