Briana A. Savage

PhD Candidate in the Higher Education Administration and Policy program at the University of California, Riverside

Briana A. Savage is currently a PhD student in the Higher Education Administration and Policy program at the University of California, Riverside. She serves as a Research Associate at the UCR Center for Athletes’ Rights and Equity (CARE), as well as a Project MALES graduate scholar.

Briana received her M.Ed. from the USC Rossier School of Education, and her BA in Political Science with a double minor in Education and Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles.

As a former college athletics practitioner, she combines theory with practice and is involved in multiple projects centered on Black college athlete experiences on higher education campuses. Briana focuses on exposing how racism, sexism, and antiblackness are present within higher education and NCAA policies and practices in order to create equitable environments for diverse student athlete populations. Her dissertation research, tentatively titled “Imagining Life After Sport: Black Women College Athletes’ Postgraduate Career Transitions”, will use antiblackness and intersectionality theory to examine how racialized and gendered experiences of D-I Black women college athletes, during their undergraduate years, influence their postgraduate career transitions.

Outside of her dissertation, she is involved in a co-authored, multi-paper project focused on Black Student Athlete Organizations on PWI campuses serving as counterspaces and places of healing for Black college athletes. Additionally, as a Research Associate for UCR CARE, Briana is involved in projects centered on Black athlete development and experiences during college (e.g. sources of support, engagement activities, and mentorship). Her most recent co-authored publication highlights the lack of career preparation beyond sports, hyperfocus on eligibility requirements over academics, and the microaggressions and racism evident within college athletics departments across the D-I level, specific to Black athletes.