Biography

Dimpal Jain is a Professor within Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and Core Faculty within the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. As a first-generation college student from a South Asian family she received her baccalaureate degree in History from Western Washington University and her Masters and Ph.D. in Higher Education and Organizational Change from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

She has served in various higher education roles over the past 20 years including positions at Seattle Central Community College, UCLA's Center for Community College Partnerships, Santa Monica College, and University of the Pacific as a researcher, faculty member, and practitioner.

Her research centers on the relationship between community colleges and universities, most notably how baccalaureate granting institutions can develop and maintain a transfer receptive culture for students of color. She utilizes critical race and womanist frameworks within her scholarship to explore issues related to the transfer function, faculty mentor and femtorship, and women of color leadership.

In 2020 she has co-authored a book entitled Power to the Transfer: Critical Race Theory and a Transfer Receptive Culture published by Michigan State University Press.

Projects

NSF HSI START: The overarching goal of the STEM Transfer and Research Training (START)Planning Project is to enhance the quality of first-year experiences among incoming STEM transfers by removing institutional and cultural barriers to STEM research and education. This grant is funded by NSF's HSI initiatives from 2023-2026. There are 3 Co-PI's including myself, Dr. Guan from Psychology and Dr. Bocanegra from Student Success.