Nathaniel Bray

Ph.D.		Vanderbilt University
M.Ed.		Vanderbilt University
B.A. with Honors	Biology	Harvard University

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Year	Award
2017	Dr. Charles Eberly Oracle Award

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Dr. Bray’s research and service work has received over $1M in research and project funding. Some funded example works include:

• Driving Regional Innovation through Vehicle Electrification (DRIVE): Creating the Future of Education and Work through a Partnership Between the Alabama Black Belt and a Regional Innovation District, Principal Investigator (with Co-PI N. Bray), U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Agency, 2022-2027, Funded: $500,000.
• The Education Policy Center was invited by UA’s Vice President for Research & Economic Development Mumper to write proposal to the U.S. Department of Commerce/Economic Development Administration’s $1 billion Building Back Better Regional Competitiveness competition.  Submitted in October and funded in December 2021; 529 Round One requests were submitted and 60 funded; ours was the sole proposal accepted among the 13 from Alabama. 
• State Apprenticeship Expansion Grant, Alabama Department of Commerce.
  • Funded: $267,594.
  • To provide research and technical assistance for the development of industry-recognized competency models for the Alabama Industry Recognized & Registered Apprenticeship Program, to guide the development of career pathways in Alabama.
• Alabama Transfers 
  • Funded: FY 2017-2023.
  • the Education Policy Center (EPC) in January 2017 to develop Alabama Transfers (AT), an initiative to improve transfer success at UA and across the State of Alabama. After six months of feasibility research, and prototype development, AT includes a comprehensive software platform designed specifically to tackle Alabama’s transfer needs.  In 2019, AT formalized a partnership with the Alabama General Studies Committee (AGSC) and the Statewide Transfer Articulation Reporting System (STARS) to merge the AT platform with STARS.  
• Southern Region Education Board (SREB).
  • Funded for $20,000.
  • Complete an evaluation of Pell funding combined with enrollment and completion across the 16 SREB states.
• Alabama Articulation and General Studies Committee (AGSC) & the Statewide Transfer & Articulation Reporting System (STARS).
  • Funded: $50,000.
  • An Assessment of the STARS Transfer Articulation System Effectiveness.
• Alabama Commission on Higher Education. 
  • Funded for $33,074. 
  • A Study of Pell Grants in Alabama.
• National Science Foundation.  
  • Funded: $349,894. 
  • Broadening Participation Research: Relationship between Targeted Faculty Development and Student Success in Introductory Science Courses at an HBCU Community College.

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Books

Edited Monographs

Braxton, J. M., & Bray, N. J. (2012) (Eds.). Codes of conduct in academia.  New Directions for Higher Education, 2012 (160).  Series Editor: B. Barefoot. San Francisco: Wiley Co.

Edited Journals

Alexander, F.A., Katsinas, S.G., & Bray, N.J. (Eds.) (2023). Special edition on U.S. public community college finance issues and challenges, Journal of Education Finance, University of Illinois Press, Volume 48, Number 3, Winter, pp. 227-334.

Bray, N. J. & Braxton, J. M. (Eds.) (2022). Special Issue. “Publishing in Higher Education and Its Assessment.” Innovative Higher Education, 47 (6).

Refereed Journal Articles

Bray, N. J., D’Entremont, A. R., & Braxton, J. M. (Accepted). “Using altmetrics as a way to assess the impact of scholarship of teaching and learning research.” Innovative Higher Education. 

Gilstrap, D., Whitver, S., Scalfani, V., & Bray, N. J. (2023). “Citation metrics and Boyer’s model of scholarship:  How do bibliometrics and altmetrics respond to research impact?” Innovative Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-023-09648-7

Alexander, F. K., Katsinas, S. G., & Bray, N. J. (2023). “Introduction to the special edition on U.S. public community college finance issues and challenges.” Journal of Education Finance, 48 (3), Winter 2023, 227-233.

King, F.K., Katsinas, S.G., Keeney, N.E., Bray, N.J., (2023). “The Impact of Federal Funding on State Budget Priorities: Public Higher Education Operating Budgets and Medicaid,” Journal of Education Finance, University of Illinois Press, Volume 48, Number 3, Winter 2023, pp. 234-250.

Bray, N.J., Till, G.A., D’Amico, M.M., Katsinas, S.G. (2023). “Emerging from COVID-19: The 2022 Report of Finance and Access Issues,” Journal of Education Finance, University of Illinois Press Volume 48, Number 3, Winter 2023, pp. 251-266.

Katsinas, S.G., Keeney, N.E., Bray, N.J., & Kelly, P.J. (2023). “Declining Pell Support at Community Colleges Since the Great Recession,” Journal of Education Finance, University of Illinois Press, Volume 48, Number 3, Winter 2023, pp. 289-305.

Katsinas, S.G., Keeney, N.E., Bray, N.J., Alexander, F.K, & Till, G.A. (2023). “Realigning Federal and State Financing Policies for Community Colleges,” Journal of Education Finance, University of Illinois Press, Volume 48, Number 3, Winter 2023, pp. 306-334.

Keeney, N.E., Katsinas, S.G., & Bray, N.J. (2023). “Local Funding and Tuition and Fee Charges at U.S. Community Colleges,” Journal of Education Finance, University of Illinois Press, Volume 48, Number 3, Winter 2023, pp. 267-288.

Bray, N. J., & Braxton, J. M. (2022). Editor’s Note. Innovative Higher Education, 47 (6), 897-900.

Bray, N. J., & Major, C. H. (2022). Status of journals in the field of higher education revisited. Innovative Higher Education, 47 (6), 901-913. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-022-09633-6

Bray, N. J., & Major, C. H. (2022). Impact factors, altmetrics, and prestige, oh my! The concordance between subjective and objective indices of journal prestige. Innovative Higher Education, 47 (6), 947-966. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-022-09635-4

Adair, L., Katsinas, S. G., Grant, P., & Bray, N. J. (2020). Federal spending for higher education: The impact of budget reconciliation. Journal of Education Finance, 46 (2), 220-237. Project Muse, muse.jhu.edu/article/785653.

Koh, J., Katsinas, S. G., Bray, N. J., & Hardy, D. (2020).  Disparities in unmet student financial need at public community colleges. Community College Journal of Research and Practice.

Koh, J., Katsinas, S. G., & Bray, N. J. (2019). State financing for public community colleges: A comparative study of fiscal capacity and tax effort. Journal of Education Finance, 45 (2).

Bray, N. J., Johnson, S., Katsinas, S. G., & Shadduck, P. (2018). Course revision in introductory STEM courses: An exploratory study at an HBCU community college. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 43 (7), 481-493. DOI: 10.1080/10668926.2018.1494062.

Shedd, L., Katsinas, S. K., & Bray, N. J. (2018). Unionization and monetary compensation at America’s access institutions. Educational Policy, 32 (2), 255-279. DOI: 10.1177/0895904817741466.

Wheeler, S., & Bray, N. J. (2017). Effectively evaluating developmental mathematics. Journal of Developmental Education, 41 (1), 10-17.

McCreary, G., Bray, N. J., & Thoma, S. (2016).  Bad apples or bad barrels? Moral disengagement, social influence, and the perpetuation of hazing in the college fraternity.  Oracle: The Research Journal of the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors, 11(1), 1-15.

Katsinas, S. G., Ogun, J., & Bray, N. J.  (2016).  Monetary compensation of full-time faculty at American public regional universities:  The impact of geography and the existence of collective bargaining.  Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, Volume 8, Article 3.

Mayhall, B.R., Katsinas, S.G., & Bray N.J. (2015). Thinking about tomorrow: Collective bargaining and labor relations in higher education. Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, Volume 8, Article 4, pp. 1-28.

Bourke, B., & Bray, N. J. (2012). African American student persistence at a predominantly White institution.   Journal of College Orientation and Transition, 20 (1), 5-18.

Bray, N. J, & Major, C. H. (2011).  Status of journals in the field of higher education. Journal ofHigher Education, 82 (4), 479-503.

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• American Educational Research Association, Division J
• ​Association for the Study of Higher Education
• Association for Institutional Research
• Chronicle of Higher Education
• Council for the Study of Community Colleges
• Innovative Higher Education
• InsideHigherEd
• Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy
• National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in the Academy
• National Education Finance Academy

Dr. Bray has devoted a great amount of time and effort in service endeavors, at the local, institutional, and national level. 

At the national level, Dr. Bray is currently a Senior Fellow with College Promise. ​He has chaired the Bylaws Committee for the Council for the Advancement of Higher Education Programs and was a member on the Committee on a Code of Ethics for ASHE. He also has served Division J, Section 1 co-chair for the AERA, and as a member of the AERA-J Exemplary Publication Award Committee. He has spent multiple terms on the editorial boards of such publications as the Journal of College Student Development, Innovative Higher Education, Journal of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education, Journal of General Education, Journal of Higher Education Athletics and Innovation, and the advisory board of the ASHE Higher Education Report Monograph series.

At the institutional level, Dr. Bray has served as on college and university wide positions. He has served or is served(ing) as/on: Higher Education Administration program coordinator, fellow and then Associate Director of the Education Policy Center,  ELPTS Promotion and Tenure Committee, and faculty advisor to the Higher Education Student Organization Committee. He has chaired multiple search committees for faculty and department head positions. He also has served on the Academic Issues Committee, Assessment Committee, Research Grants Committee, Data Needs Task Force, Undergraduate Programs and Services Committee, and the University Student Retention Task Force as well as on Faculty Senate. Within the state of Alabama, he has worked with the Alabama Community College Leadership Academy and was part of Governor Ivey’s task force reviewing the tnAchieves College Promise program.

Within his local community, Dr. Bray has served as both a youth soccer coach and robotics coach for over a decade. He continues to volunteer as a robotics judge working with FIRST robotics. He has also spent years as a math tutor and working to help students prepare for college entrance standardized exams like the SAT and ACT.

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Nathaniel J. Bray is a Professor of Higher Education Administration and Associate Director of the Education Policy Center at The University of Alabama. He joined UA as an Assistant Professor in 2004, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010, and to Professor in 2018. Prior to joining the faculty at UA, he was a Research Analyst conducting Institutional Research at Virginia Tech. Dr. Bray earned his Masters (MEd) and doctorate (PhD) at Vanderbilt University at the Peabody College of Education, working with such mentors as John Braxton, Terry Deal, Jeff Milem, Kassie Freeman, Berta Vigil Laden, and Alma Clayton Pedersen. His undergraduate degree was in Biology at Harvard University, where he graduated cum laude in General Studies. 

He has taught multiple courses in the Higher Education Administration program as well as in Educational Research, focusing on quantitative methods and research design. Dr. Bray has worked widely in mentoring students and has chaired over 50 dissertations through completion. He has published two books and edited two special edition journals, and has authored or co-authored over 60 different publications. His work at the Education Policy Center has involved work as co-PI on numerous grants, including a return on investment study for the Higher Education Partnership of Alabama (2015), and evaluation of the AGSC STARS transfer system, and a three-year NSF Broadening grant with Shelton State. The Education Policy Center received the ASHE 2016 Excellence in Public Policy in Higher Education Award for its efforts related to Pell grants and improving financial access to higher education for students. 

​Dr. Bray’s efforts have been acknowledged with the 2017 Dr. Charles Eberly Oracle Award for outstanding research, the 2020 Ross Palmer Service to Students Award, and the Nellie Rose McCrory Faculty Excellence Award for Research in 2023  for the College of Education. He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of College Student Development, Innovative Higher Education, Journal of General Education, Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, Journal of Higher Education Athletics & Innovation, and on the advisory board for the ASHE Higher Education Report Monograph Series.

His latest work includes co-authoring a book from Harvard Education Press, co-editing special editions of the Journal of Education Finance (on higher education finance) and Innovative Higher Education (on publishing in higher education) and being co-PI on a finalist grant in the Build Back Better Challenge .

​When not teaching or conducting research, Dr. Bray enjoys reading and writing, hiking, sailing and canoeing, photography, and travel.

Dr. Bray has a long background in education, one with strong family ties; his father was a biology teacher and his mother worked with special needs students for multiple decades.  Dr. Bray earned his B.A. with honors in Biology from Harvard University before moving to Nashville to earn his M.Ed. and Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University. He then went to Blacksburg, VA where he worked in institutional research at Virginia Tech before going to the University of Alabama in 2004. He has served in various positions as he moved from assistant to associate and then full professor there.  

An avid reader and writer, Dr. Bray enjoys science fiction and fantasy, as well as biographies and historical fiction. He was, many years ago now, a whitewater canoeing instructor in Maine. He remains an active hiker and loves visiting national and state parks as well as international travel, and has spent years coaching soccer and FIRST robotics programs. He is also a massive dog and cat fan.