For the fourth consecutive year, Kimberly Griffin, dean of the University of Maryland College of Education, has been named one of the most influential education scholars in the United States.
Released yesterday, Education Week’s 2025 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings recognize the 200 U.S. scholars who have exerted the most influence over educational practice and policy during the past year. Frederick M. Hess, senior fellow and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and Education Week blogger, along with a 24-member selection committee, chose these top 200 scholars from a pool of 20,000 education researchers based at U.S. colleges and universities. Hess and the committee used eight metrics to compile the rankings, including how many books the scholars have authored, co-authored or edited; how widely their publications are cited; how often their work is included in college syllabi around the world; and how often they are mentioned or quoted in online sources, newspapers, and education publications. This marks the 15th year that Education Week has published these annual rankings.
“I hope that my scholarship will help advance more just, equitable, caring and welcoming communities in higher education, creating opportunities for everyone to thrive,” said Griffin. “It’s humbling to be recognized alongside so many innovative education scholars, and it’s gratifying to see the influence that my work has on educators, students, scholars and policymakers.”
A self-identified “problem-based researcher,” Griffin pursues research that promotes access, diversity, equity and justice in higher education, with a particular focus on mentorship, career development, and faculty and graduate student diversity. She recently co-authored the third edition of the classic book “On Being a Mentor: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty,” which is considered the definitive guide to mentoring in academia.
Griffin’s work has been published in such highly regarded journals as the Review of Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Negro Education and Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, where she also served as editor from 2018 to 2022. Her research has been funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, and she has collaborated and consulted with the National Academies, National Science Foundation, Association of American Universities, and American Council on Education, among others. As a highly sought-after education expert, she has been cited and quoted by media outlets including USA Today, Education Week and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.
In addition to this most recent honor, Griffin has received the Promising Scholar/Early Career Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (2013) and multiple awards from the American College Personnel Association, including the Diamond Honoree Award (2020), Outstanding Mentor to Graduate Students Award (2018) and Emerging Scholar Award (2010).
