Damani White-Lewis

Biography

Damani White-Lewis is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. He studies higher education, specifically focusing on academic norms, contexts, and careers in the U.S. and abroad. A mixed methodologist, he blends insights from organizational behavior, social psychology, and critical studies to inform higher education policies and practices, most notably those concerning how academicians are trained, hired, evaluated, promoted, and retained.

His work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and more. He has won numerous awards from organizations like the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). His scholarship appears in The Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, American Educational Research Journal, The International Journal of Higher Education, Review of Higher Education, Teachers College Record, and others. He has been featured and quoted in popular outlets such as Science, Nature, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Dr. White-Lewis is a recognized teacher, community member, and speaker. He teaches courses on contemporary higher education issues, organizational theory, and academic writing. In 2025, he received the Penn GSE Excellence in Teaching Award. The year prior, he received the 2024 Recognition of Outstanding Service Award, and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University where he extended his work with the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE). He has spoken to and advised over 40 different colleges and organizations on issues related to the academic profession and institutional change.

Dr. White-Lewis received his Ph.D. in higher education & organizational change (HEOC) from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was also a research analyst at the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI). He received his M.A. in higher education from the University of Maryland, College Park, and his B.A. in political science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

Ph.D. (Higher Education & Organizational Change) UCLA, 2019
M.A. (Higher Education) University of Maryland, College Park, 2015
B.A. (Political Science) University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 2013

Faculty careers & academe
Racial equity
Organizational behavior
Institutional and departmental change
Experimental and quasi-experimental design
Case study methodology

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Higher Education, Ph.D.

Higher Education, M.S.Ed.

Higher Education, Ed.D.

Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management, Ed.D.

Faculty Hiring

White-Lewis, D., O’Meara, K., Wessel, J., Anderson, J., Culpepper, D., & Templeton, J. (2024). Making the band: Constructing competitiveness in faculty hiring decisions. Research in Higher Education, 65(6), 1137–1162.
Culpepper, D., White-Lewis, D., O’Meara, K., Templeton, L., & Anderson, J. (2023). Do rubrics live up to their promise? Examining how faculty search committees use rubrics in candidate evaluation and selection. The Journal of Higher Education, 94(7), 823–850.
O’Meara, K., Templeton, L., White-Lewis, D., Culpepper, D., & Anderson, J. (2023). The safest bet: Identifying and assessing risk in faculty selection. American Educational Research Journal, 60(2), 330–366.
White-Lewis, D. (2022). The role of administrative and academic leadership in advancing faculty diversity. The Review of Higher Education, 45(3), 337–364.
White-Lewis, D. (2021). Before the ad: How departments generate hiring priorities that support or avert faculty diversity. Teachers College Record, 123(1).
White-Lewis, D. (2020). The facade of fit in faculty search processes. The Journal of Higher Education, 91(6), 833–857.

Faculty Mentoring

White-Lewis, D., Romero, A., Gutzwa, J., & Hurtado, S. (2022). “Moving the science forward”: Faculty perceptions of culturally diverse mentor training benefits, challenges, and supports. CBE – Life Sciences Education, 21(1), 1–10.
White-Lewis, D., & McLewis, C. (2021). Deeper than the pool: The merit of mentoring in advancing faculty diversity. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, San Juan, PR.
Fries-Britt, S., & White-Lewis, D. (2020). In pursuit of meaningful relationships: How Black males perceive faculty interactions in STEM. The Urban Review, 52(3), 521540.

Faculty Retention

White-Lewis, D., O’Meara, K., Matthews, K., & Havey, N. (2025). Counteroffers for faculty at research universities: Who gets them, who doesn’t, and what factors produce them? Higher Education, 89(2), 535–552.
White-Lewis, D., Culpepper, D., O’Meara, K., Templeton, J., & Anderson, J. (2023). One foot out the door: Interrogating the “risky hire” narrative in STEM faculty careers. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 30(3), 53–74.
White-Lewis, D., O’Meara, K., Mathews, K., & Havey, N. (2022). Leaving the institution or leaving the academy? Analyzing the factors that faculty weigh in actual departure decisions. Research in Higher Education, 64(3), 473–494.
O’Meara, K., Fink, J., White-Lewis, D. (2017). Who’s looking? Examining the role of gender and rank in faculty outside offers. NASPA Journal about Women in Higher Education, 10(1), 64–79.

Departmental, Institutional, and Systemic Change

O’Meara, K., Templeton, L., Culpepper, D., & White-Lewis, D. (2022). Translating equity-minded principles into faculty evaluation reform. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education (ACE).
White-Lewis, D., Bennett, J., & Redd, K. (2022). Framing the dialog for systemic equity reform in STEM faculty careers. Washington, D.C.: Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU).
Cobian, K. P., White-Lewis, D., Hurtado, S., & Ramos, H. V. (2022). Implementing case study design to evaluate diverse institutions and STEM education contexts: Lessons and key areas for systematic study. New Directions for Evaluation: Evaluating a National Biomedical Diversity Initiative.
Hurtado, S., White-Lewis, D., & Norris K. (2017). Advancing inclusive science and systemic change: The convergence of national aims and institutional goals in implementing and assessing biomedical science training. BioMed Central Proceedings, 11(17), 1–13.

Related News

All News

Faculty Hiring Is Under Federal Scrutiny at Harvard

In the Media | Chronicle of Higher Education, May 12, 2025

Topics

Damani White-Lewis believes it is wrong to assume that a decline in white male professors is necessarily due to discrimination. He points out that the pool of candidates for academic positions–doctoral candidates and postdocs–has also become more diverse.

Penn GSE students, faculty, and staff honored with 2025 Annual Awards

News | May 07, 2025
Topics
- News from Penn GSE,
- Strategic Vision: Together for Good
From mentoring and instruction to leadership and creativity, this year’s awardees represent the values that define Penn GSE.
Damani White-Lewis on faculty diversity amid uncertainty

News | April 18, 2025
Topics
- Higher Education
The Penn GSE assistant professor provides actionable advice for institutions striving for a more representative professoriate in Inside Higher Ed.
Damani White-Lewis highlights bias in faculty promotions in 'Nature Human Behaviour'

News | October 15, 2024
Topics
His commentary was cited by "Nature" and "Science."
Exposing the Inequity of Faculty Counteroffers

In the Media | Inside Higher Ed May 14, 2024
Topics
- Higher Education
Damani White-Lewis discusses the diminished likelihood for women and POC to get counteroffers compared to their white male counterparts, and emphasizes the importance of counteroffers as an underutilized faculty diversity strategy.
10 tips for achieving a more diverse faculty

News | November 30, 2023
Topics
- Higher Education,
- 10 tips for achieving a more diverse faculty
Hiring tips from Penn GSE’s Damani White-Lewis
Damani White-Lewis shares insights into postdoctoral hiring inequities

News | August 17, 2023

Damani White-Lewis told Science last week that a recent study finding many researchers of color are at a disadvantage in the postdoctoral hiring process is both “very important” and “very needed.” He proposed addressing the issue by increasing network connections across universities to create “strong bonds” for minorities.
Among U.S. postdoc applicants, researchers of color often fare worst

In the Media | Science August 10, 2023
Topics
- Higher Education,
- Among U.S. postdoc applicants, researchers of color often fare worst
Damani White-Lewis shares insights into postdoctoral hiring inequities.
Studying the Academy from Within

In the Media | Penn GSE Magazine June 01, 2023
Topics
- Higher Education,
- Studying the Academy from Within
A Q&A with Damani White-Lewis on his research investigating why university faculty still lack racial diversity and how to build pathways towards equity in higher education.
Research–practice partnership supports institutional effectiveness

In the Media | COACHE Impact Report March 01, 2023
Topics
- Higher Education,
- Research–practice partnership supports institutional effectiveness
Damani White-Lewis is featured in a story about scholars using COACHE data to focus on the academic workforce.
Damani White-Lewis studies why university faculties often lack diversity

News | December 12, 2022
Topics
- Education Policy & Analysis,
- Damani White-Lewis studies why university faculties often lack diversity
His goal is to shift hiring and retention practices in higher ed through data, interventions, and conversations about racialized organizational dynamics.
Damani White-Lewis joins faculty at the University of Pennsylvania

In the Media | Ampersand November 19, 2022
Topics
An interdisciplinary scholar who studies racial inequality in academic careers and contexts using multiple methods and theories from organizational behavior and social psychology, White-Lewis will teach and conduct research in the school’s Policy, Organizations, Leadership, and Systems Division.
Black faculty and radical retention

In the Media | Footnotes: A Magazine of the American Sociological Association October 29, 2022
Topics
- Higher Education,
- Black faculty and radical retention
Damani White-Lewis offers research-based recommendations on retaining Black faculty.
Mitigating bias through rubrics

In the Media | Inside Higher Ed July 12, 2022
Topics
- Higher Education,
- Mitigating bias through rubrics
The work of Damani White-Lewis is referenced on how the concept of faculty fit can perpetuate biases in hiring if it’s not standardized.