Amy Stuart Wells, PhD, is the dean of Bank Street Graduate School of Education and professor emeritus of sociology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University (TC). For more than 30 years, she has worked as a journalist, researcher, university faculty member, and leader to make stronger connections between education policy and practices that foster integration and culturally responsive schools and classrooms.
From 2016–2023, she was the executive director of Reimagining Education: Teaching, Learning and Leading for a Racially Just Society, which offers educators several ways to engage with Teachers College faculty while learning about the research on teaching, culture, and race to improve their practice. The centerpiece of this work is the annual Reimagining Education Summer Institute (RESI), a four-day professional development institute held every July that draws hundreds of educators from across the country and the world to learn about anti-racism strategies for teaching, learning, and school culture and climate. She also served as director of TC’s Reimagining Education Advanced Certificate Program, the Sociology and Education Program, as well as a non-profit called The Public Good: A Public School Support Organization (PSSO), which is dedicated to supporting and sustaining racially diverse public schools by utilizing systematic research to shape professional development for educators, advocacy, and reframing of public schools.
From 2018–19, she was president of the 25,000-member American Educational Research Association (AERA). Wells is a corresponding fellow of the British National Academy, a member of the National Academy of Education, an AERA fellow. and a senior fellow of the Learning Policy Institute. As the author and editor of five books and more than 50 articles and book chapters, as well as dozens of research reports and articles for the popular press, her research examines the intersection of racial inequality and educational policies, including school desegregation, school choice policy, and efforts to implement antiracist, culturally responsive reforms in schools.
