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Dr. Charity E. Lewallen, Ph.D., is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Education Policy and Leadership at the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from ÑÇÖÞ×ÔοÊÓƵ, a M.A. in Education (concentration in Counseling and Guidance) from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and a B.A. in Sociology from UCLA.

Prior to her faculty appointment, Dr. Lewallen served as a higher education practitioner and leader over two decades at multiple organizations, including community colleges, small private colleges, a large regional public university, and a charter high school. Her roles have spanned several areas including enrollment, admissions, academic advising, accreditation, distance or online education, study abroad, academic recovery, Title IX investigation, and student affairs. She also served in leadership roles in student success, strategic planning and accreditation and taught undergraduate college success courses. Dr. Lewallen has also served as a consultant in strategic planning for transfer student success for a large urban community college. These experiences inform how she approaches teaching and research. In the classroom, she is keen on incorporating insights from real-world practitioner experiences, especially those her students face in their professional roles, into conversations about theory and research. Dr. Lewallen teaches a variety of higher education courses, including courses focused on contemporary issues in higher education, leading change in higher education, college student development, faculty and administration, and organizational theory.

Broadly speaking, Dr. Lewallen’s research agenda focuses on higher education policies and practices that support student success. The application of this has primarily focused on examining institutional accreditation and how it relates to student outcomes, in particular transfer student outcomes. Aside from examining accreditation policy she is particularly interested in research focused on finding new policy levers for improving transfer student baccalaureate degree attainment. She has also worked collaboratively with research teams focused on presidential turnover and trustees at public universities as well as a series of papers about the academic structures of striving universities.