UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Kamaria Porter joins Penn State’s College of Education as an assistant professor of education (higher education) in the Department of Education Policy Studies with a wide array of experience in the field of racial and gender equities in higher education, particularly in graduate education and campus sexual assault.
She completed her doctorate at the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan in July. Her dissertation examined barriers to reporting campus sexual assault for Black women and nonbinary students.
Also a member of Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society and a research associate in the Department of Sociology at Michigan, Porter grew up on Chicago’s South Side and then attended the University of Notre Dame, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in history with a concentration in U.S. labor history.
She worked as a community organizer with United Power for Action and Justice in Chicago. Porter then joined the staff of Christ the King Jesuit College Prep on Chicago’s West Side and that, she said, sparked an interest in higher education.
While earning a master’s degree in higher education at Loyola University Chicago, she became active in sexual assault prevention and support programs as a rape crisis counselor. During her master’s training, she worked as an advocate for rape survivors in emergency rooms and accompanied them as they navigated the confusing landscape of legal and medical decisions.
At Michigan, Porter was a researcher on the University Responses to Sexual Assault Research project through the Department of Sociology. She has trained and supervised nearly 100 undergraduate students coding sexual misconduct policies for adjudication procedures, and definitions of consent and prohibited conduct. A recent article from the project, "Gender Equity and Due Process in Campus Sexual Assault Adjudication Procedures” was published in the Journal of Higher Education. Authored by Porter and her collaborators Sandra Levitsky and Elizabeth Armstrong, their analysis of 381 adjudication procedures has major implications for the Department of Education's proposed changes to Title IX regulations, announced in June.
She said that cross-section of experience, as well as observing the commitment to equity and anti-racism in research priorities, policy advocacy and community partnerships at Penn State, convinced her that the College of Education would be the best place for her to pursue her research and professional goals.
“As a former community organizer, I was drawn to (the College of Education) by its collaborative work with school districts in Pennsylvania to combat resegregation,” Porter said. “I saw in the faculty and leadership at Penn State the expertise and connections to continue my intellectual and policy advocacy interests of civil rights law and higher education policy, as it relates to my core interest: sexual assault on campuses.
“Further, the opportunity to teach and develop courses that could bridge research and practice in the area of Title IX and Equity policy was appealing.”