PhD Candidate in the Department of Educational Policy Studies with a doctoral minor in Qualitative Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Virginia Downing is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Educational Policy Studies with a doctoral minor in Qualitative Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Originally from the Kansas City, Kansas area, Virginia has more than 14 years of engaging in the intersections of community spaces and schools. Before starting the doctoral journey, Virginia maintained involvement with youth in her area through volunteering in community-based afterschool programs. Within a professional role, Virginia was an Academic Advisor and Bridge Program Coordinator at Arizona State University where she worked with both undergraduate students and prospective college students and their families in the community. During her time in Arizona, Virginia co-led summer reading programs with Black and Brown youth in the community through the public libraries. Currently, Virginia is an undergraduate instructor and a graduate researcher for two multi-year projects that examine how community perspectives and involvement in education policies can lead to equitable and anti-racist institutional systems. Virginia received her Bachelor of Science in Journalism-Strategic Communications from the University of Kansas and her Masters of Arts in Higher Education-Student Affairs from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Virginia studies how community engagement, both within and outside of schools, shapes community-school relationships and informs how education reform is practiced and enacted. Drawing from scholarship within Black studies, Sociology, and Education, Virginia aims to interrogate power and organizational structures that influence community-school relationships, as well as further explore the experiences of community members across a breadth of educational spaces. Virginia’s dissertation project examines how Black community members and local school district engagement leaders within a mid-size midwestern city conceptualize community-school relationships, and how their engagement impacts sustainable relationships for education reform efforts. She has been invited to present her research at The American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Sociology of Education Association (SEA), and the University Council for Education Administration (UCEA).