H. Richard Milner IV

Class of 2023-24

Professor of Education 
Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Education
Immediate Past Joseph A. Johnson, Jr. Distinguished Leadership Professor Department of Teaching and Learning
Professor of Sociology (Secondary)
Professor of Education Policy Studies (Secondary)
Founding Director, Initiative for Race Research and Justice
Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University

H. Richard Milner IV is a researcher, scholar, and leader of urban education and teacher education, whose work innovates and supports educator effectiveness across disciplines. Dr. Milner is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the world’s largest educational research association in the world. He is also a past president of AERA.

Milner’s work has influenced designs and implementation of curricular, assessment, and instructional policies and practices in school districts across the United States and world. Milner developed and introduced the Opportunity Gap Framework to assist researchers in better capturing students’ experiences in schools. He also introduced the Researcher Positionality Framework to challenge and support researchers in designing and enacting studies and programs of research that recognize, name and work through what he describes as dangers “seen, unseen and unforeseen” in studying race and culture in education science. Widely cited, the framework has been adapted across the world and in a range of disciplines including engineering and health sciences.

Milner earned his doctorate in educational policy and leadership from The Ohio State University.

He is the first Black person in the history of Vanderbilt University to earn tenure and promotion in the Peabody College of Education and Human Development.

He has authored nine books, including three best-sellers, and more than 100 peer-reviewed publications.

Milner will collaborate with faculty, researchers and students in the School of Education and Human Development.