Biography

Dr. Barbara S. S. Hong is an educator, scholar, author, academic leader, and principal consultant whose career has been devoted to expanding educational opportunity and helping students succeed from K–12 through college and into the workforce. For more than 25 years, she has worked across classrooms, universities, school systems, government agencies, and international organizations to improve teaching and learning, strengthen student persistence, and build educational systems that turn access into meaningful opportunity.

Dr. Hong earned her Ph.D. in Special Education from Columbia University and holds three master’s degrees in instructional practices for diverse learners, educational leadership and policy, and learning specialist studies. She is a licensed K–12 special education teacher, school principal, and district-level administrator, bringing to her work the perspective of someone who understands education from the classroom to executive leadership.

A three-time tenured professor, Dr. Hong has taught and worked with educators throughout the United States and internationally. Her global work has taken her to countries including Qatar, Turkey, Taiwan, Malaysia, Guatemala, and Singapore. She is a three-time Fulbright recipient, having been selected as a Senior Fulbright Scholar, Senior Fulbright Specialist, and Fulbright-Hays Fellow. In 2014, she was appointed by the U.S. Department of State as a Speaker Specialist & Expert in disability and inclusion, working internationally with educators and educational organizations. She was also recognized as the first Honorable Visiting Scholar at Taiwan Municipal University of Education.

Dr. Hong’s scholarship examines a question that has shaped much of her career: Why do some students succeed while others fail? Her research has explored barriers to college persistence and completion, particularly among students with disabilities and students who encounter academic, economic, institutional, or navigational barriers. Her work also examines self-determination, faculty attitudes, the cognitive science of teaching and learning, college readiness, and the transition from secondary to postsecondary career/education.

Her leadership has extended this research from scholarship into institutional practice. Dr. Hong has served as a faculty member, program coordinator, dean, special advisor, and vice president. Across these roles, she has led work in undergraduate education, enrollment and student success, academic advising, faculty development, institutional effectiveness, disability and accessibility, developmental education, Early College, adult basic education, workforce and postsecondary pathways, and organizational change.

Today, Dr. Hong also serves as a Principal Consultant for schools and educational organizations seeking to build stronger connections between K–12 education, college, and workforce. Her consulting work focuses on the strategic design and scaling of Early College and postsecondary pathways, K–12/higher education partnerships, college and career readiness, curriculum and transfer alignment, educator capacity building, and data-informed systems for student success. Rather than creating programs that depend indefinitely on outside expertise, she works with institutions to build the knowledge, structures, partnerships, and internal capacity needed to sustain the work themselves. Her mission is to help educators, faculty, students, and families make college more affordable, accessible, and achievable.

Dr. Hong has served on the Oxford Education Research Symposium Advisory Board and on the Executive Board of the Council for Exceptional Children. She is also the founding executive director of P.A.C.E.™ —Parents as Advocates for Change in Education.

Her work has earned honors including the International Teacher of Honor, University Exemplary Faculty, and Outstanding Advisor. She is the author of Failing Up: A Professor’s Odyssey of Flunking, Determination, and Hope, which received a Kirkus Star and was selected among Kirkus Reviews’ 100 Best Indie Books of 2018. She also wrote the M.A.P. My Aspiration Plan workbook—a college-success resource designed to help students develop the self-awareness, self-regulation, self-advocacy, and self-determination needed to take charge of their education.