Sarah Whitley

Sarah E. Whitley serves as senior director of the Center for First-generation Student Success, an initiative of NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and The Suder Foundation. Prior to joining NASPA, Sarah earned a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education where her scholarly interests included issues of inequality, academic motivation and decision-making, teaching and learning, the success of first-generation and low-income students, and the university presidency and board governance. Her dissertation examined the academic decision-making of low-income and first-generation college students with interest in humanities disciplines in a post-Recession context. Previously, Sarah served as director of First-Year Experience and Family Programs at Longwood University She holds an M.Ed. in college student personnel administration from James Madison University, a bachelor’s degree in political science from Longwood College.

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