Chris Torres is an associate professor of Educational Policy and Leadership at the University of Michigan. Before joining academia, he was an elementary school teacher in the Bronx and Harlem. As a graduate student, he worked as a teacher educator, consultant for Charter Management Organizations, and volunteered as a board chair and trustee of a standalone charter school in the Bronx.

Dr. Torres’ work focuses on how leadership and policy can stabilize and strengthen school improvement efforts and teaching as a profession. Torres studies how teacher shortages and chronic turnover constrain the work of districts, superintendents, schools, and school leaders. Across his research Torres examines the influence of leadership, district governance, salaries, and working conditions on educator recruitment, retention, and organizational effectiveness. He often studies these issues in the context of accountability policies that aim (or claim) to dramatically improve outcomes for traditionally marginalized communities. For example, he is recognized nationally for his work on the costs and consequences associated with the practices of urban "no-excuses" charter schools and he is currently working on studies that examine school choice and school turnaround policies. Torres is an associate editor for Educational Administration Quarterly (EAQ), and serves on editorial boards of journals such as Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA), Urban Education, and Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA). His work has been supported by various funders and published in peer-reviewed journals such as Educational Administration Quarterly, American Journal of Education, Urban Education, Teaching and Teacher Education and the Journal of School Leadership.