Tirza Wilbon White, Ph.D. (Emory University) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership at the University of Maryland, College Park.  Her research interests examine interactions between educational policies and social contexts in urban settings. She teaches graduate-level courses on the social contexts of education, the politics of school reform, qualitative research methods and foundations of educational research. Before entering academia, she was a high school English teacher, curriculum director and PK-12 accreditation consultant.