Jennifer Lauren Nelson

Jennifer Lauren Nelson is Assistant Professor in both Education Policy, Organization and Leadership and the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois. As an organizational ethnographer, she studies workplace structures generating social inequality (race/class/gender) within educational settings. Her PhD in Sociology from Emory University (2018) followed three years teaching in urban public high schools and an IES Postdoctoral Fellowship at Vanderbilt University.

Her research examines:

• Teacher social networks and resource access
• Organizational predictors of teacher turnover
• Identity preservation in early childhood education
• Principal evaluation and compensation systems

Publications demonstrate recurring themes of workplace justice, social ties formation among organizational minorities, and reward structures in semi-professions. Current projects include vignette studies of teacher-principal interactions and principal compensation analyses. She serves on the editorial board of Work and Occupations (2022-2025).

Honors include:

• AERA Division A Outstanding Dissertation Award (2019)
• Michael Fullan Emerging Scholar Award (2020)