The University of Maryland College of Education recently appointed two faculty members to named professorships. David Blazar, associate professor of education policy and economics, has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the Malen Endowed Professorship for Urban Education Policy. Zeena Zakharia, associate professor of international education policy, has been named the Harold R.W. Benjamin Professor of International and Comparative Education.
“Dr. Blazar and Dr. Zakharia are accomplished scholars whose important research reshapes what we know about education and broadens access to teaching and learning,” said Dean Kimberly Griffin. “They are both passionate about creating safe, empowering educational spaces and advancing equity and opportunities for all. I am excited to see where their research leads them and the broader impact of their work as they take on these new roles.”
Malen Endowed Professorship: David Blazar
The Malen Endowed Professorship honors Betty Malen (1946-2023), who served as a professor of educational policy in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership for nearly 30 years. Her work focused on the politics of education, education reform and various ways intergovernmental relations affect education at different organizational levels.
As the Malen Endowed Professor, Blazar will pursue research related to the politics and policy of teacher workforce equity. He will examine why decades of recruitment policy have not succeeded in diversifying the workforce, which remains roughly 80% white, and will study the institutional conditions that sustain those disparities. He will pair causal research on Maryland's teacher pipeline and implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future with community-engaged work, convening youth, families, teachers, district and state leaders and community organizers around potential solutions.
“Betty taught me, by example, that the best education policy scholarship is patient, political, partnered and unflinching about whose lives are shaped by the policies we study,” said Blazar. “Carrying that forward in her name is the greatest professional honor I could ask for.”
A former New York City high school English language arts teacher, Blazar is faculty director of the College of Education’s Maryland Equity Project, as well as an affiliate associate professor at the School of Public Policy and the Department of Economics. He earned an Ed.D. in quantitative policy analysis in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Blazar’s work has been published in Educational Researcher, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and Review of Educational Research, among other journals. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Educational Researcher and Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness; the latter named him Reviewer of the Year in 2025. His work has been covered in outlets including the Atlantic, Education Week, Fortune.com and Axios and cited in federal documents on diversifying the teacher workforce and recruiting, retaining and supporting teachers. Funders of Blazar’s research include the Institute of Education Sciences, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, American Educational Research Association, Spencer Foundation (including through a recent Vision Grant), Google Foundation and Gates Foundation.
Earlier this year, Education Week named Blazar among the 200 most influential education scholars in the United States on its 2026 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. In addition, he has received the Jean Flanigan Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association for Education Finance and Policy and was recognized as an emerging education policy scholar by the Fordham Institute.
Harold R.W. Benjamin Professorship: Zeena Zakharia
Named for the third dean of the College of Education, Harold R.W. Benjamin (1893-1969), the Benjamin Professorship celebrates and supports the work of scholars who, like Benjamin, have engaged in work in international or comparative education.
As the Benjamin Professor, Zakharia will work with a coalition of stakeholders, including funders, UN agencies, educators, civil society and government officials, to reimagine and increase equity in the global system that supports education in contexts of conflict and emergencies, including war, climate disaster and health-related crises. She will also document the work of teachers in shelters, camps and other spaces of displacement and consider what this labor teaches us about the importance of education as a right and as a vehicle for liberation.
“It is an honor to be named the Benjamin Professor at this moment. The Professorship affords a platform to amplify the interconnectivities between U.S. and global issues and create new synergies in international and comparative research, teaching and service at the College of Education,” said Zakharia. “This is a time to build solidarities—across disciplines, peoples and our work for a better world.”
Zakharia holds an Ed.D. in international educational development (policy studies) from Teachers College, Columbia University. She recently co-authored the book “Transforming Humanitarian Partnerships: Dismantling Colonial Legacies for Refugee Education” (Bristol University Press, 2026). Her work has been featured in publications including Comparative Education Review, Harvard Educational Review and International Journal of Educational Development. Zakharia serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Human Rights Education, Journal on Education in Emergencies and Journal of Peace Education. Her work has been funded by the Spencer Foundation (incluing through a Vision Grant and a Racial Equity Research Grant this year), Maryland State Department of Education, Education International, Dubai Cares, Social Science Research Council and British Council.
Zakharia has conducted research in contexts of conflict and forced displacement for over two decades. She was a Gebran G. Tueni Human Rights Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She has also been a Middle Eastern Studies postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University and a research fellow at the Middle East Institute.
