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Gregory C. Wolniak is a Senior Research Scientist in the Department of Education and Child Development. Since joining NORC in 2007, Wolniak has built on more than a decade of experience studying topics related to the U.S. higher education system. Wolniak’s analysis and writing center on advancing our understanding of education in society and the role of educational systems in influencing access and opportunity among underserved and disadvantaged students.
A common theme in Wolniak’s work is the examination of points of transition, including pathways into college, as well as socioeconomic and labor market outcomes that result from the college experience. He currently serves as Principal Investigator for the Horatio Alger Association’s (HAA) Success Study; a project designed to identify background factors and experiences associated with resilience and success among applicants to the HAA Scholarship Program. He is also a task leader for the NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program evaluation and maintains a key role providing analysis support to the Federal TRIO programs aimed at facilitating postsecondary preparation, access, and persistence among low-income and first-generation students.
Wolniak has authored or co-authored more than twenty-five refereed journal articles, and numerous other reports and conference papers on a wide variety of postsecondary education topics, including college choice, student development, and the socioeconomic outcomes of higher education. In 2010 he received a research grant to study the relationships between high school contexts and postsecondary enrollment, funded by the Association for Institutional Research, NSF, and the National Center for Education Statistics. He is a Consulting Editor for Research in Higher Education with recent publications appearing in the Journal of Higher Education, Teachers College Record, and Research in Higher Education.