The Research Collaborative on Higher Education in Prison is part of the University of Utah Prison Education Project, a multi-pronged approach to expand the field of quality higher education in prison. We work in collaboration with programs across the country to transform the landscape of higher education in prison through empirical research and collaboration toward more equitable and quality experiences for incarcerated students.
Research Collaborative Members:
Erin L. Castro is an Associate Dean of Community Engagement and Access, Undergraduate Studies and Co-Director/Founder of the University of Utah Prison Education Project. She is also an Associate Professor of Higher Education, and she directs the Research Collaborative on Higher Education in Prison.
Pamela Cappas-Toro is the Operations Director of Higher Education in Prison, concurrently serving as a faculty member in the World Languages and Cultures Department. Dr. Cappas-Toro has worked in higher education across the U.S. promoting institutional practices, policies, and programming to best serve incarcerated, first-generation, and eHSI learners.
Cassie Knaff is a Senior Research Associate for the Research Collaborative on Higher Education in Prison and a PhD student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Texas at Austin. She has 5 years of experience conducting research in nonprofit and higher education. What excites her most about this position is doing new and interdisciplinary research that is used nationally by decision makers and practitioners to improve the educational experiences of marginalized students, especially low-income students and students of color.
Cydney Caradonna is a PhD student in Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Utah. Throughout her academic career she has supported a variety of programming including transfer student support and social justice leadership development. Her career goals include becoming faculty and producing research surrounding critical leadership studies, higher education in prison, student activism and epistemic justice while engaging with community organizing efforts.
Emily Kersten-Warneke is a PhD student at the University of Utah in the Educational Leadership and Policy department. Her work at UPEP, as the graduate assistant, is a combination of on-site and administrative work. When she’s not working as a teaching assistant at the prison, she is supporting programming and conducting research for the Research Collaborative on Higher Education in Prison. Her favorite aspects of this position are helping to develop new, research-based, on-site programs and researching tangible ways to reform prisons
