Diane Hirshberg

Dr. Diane Hirshberg, Professor of Education, has been appointed Interim Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER). Dr. Hirshberg is an 18-year veteran of UAA and ISER, and has served in leadership roles such as President of UAA’s faculty senate and advisor to the Chancellor on Arctic Research and Education. She was the founding director of the Center for Alaska Education Policy Research and is currently Vice-President Academic at the University of the Arctic.

"Guidelines for Culturally-Responsive Reflective Practice in Birth – Five Settings" is a new publication developed to help early childhood educators reflect on culturally-responsive practices in order to identify strengths and areas for continuous improvement. They were developed collaboratively between Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC) and faculty from UAA’s Department of Psychology and Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) as a component of the “Improving Childcare Outcomes Research” project.

How will the Biden administration tackle issues facing education? Dr. Diane Hirshberg, professor of education policy at ISER, provides some insight into the nation’s challenges and possible solutions. 

Dr. Diane Hirshberg has been named Vice-President Academic of the University of the Arctic (UArctic), a collaborative network of universities, colleges, and other organizations committed to higher education and research in and about the North. Hirshberg is Professor of Education Policy at ISER, where she contributes to two of its main research areas: Arctic Communities and Education.

Dr. Diane Hirshberg, professor of education policy, was one of the experts tapped to provide some perspective on how cities can attract and retain a highly educated workforce as well as thoughts on the impact of COVID-19 on the education system.

Diane Hirshberg, Professor of Education Policy, wrote a thought piece on challenges in distance learning in Arctic postsecondary education along with Paul Wasko of UAA’s Academic Innovations & eLearning. Titled “Learning from the Crisis: Issues in Strengthening Online Learning for the Future,” the article highlights both the possibilities for transforming online learning, and the challenges facing faculty, students, institutions, and communities.

On Wednesday, March 18, Dr. Dayna DeFeo, Director of the Center for Alaska Education Policy Research, and Dr. Diane Hirshberg, Professor of Education Policy, testified to the Alaska Legislature’s House Education Committee. Their testimony wove together major findings from seven CAEPR research studies to explore teacher supply, demand, retention, turnover, and competition in Alaska and relative to the lower 48. They shared some of Alaska’s areas of opportunity in meeting the need to staff its classrooms with high-quality educators, including expanding efforts to grow our “homegrown” teacher pipeline, improving working conditions that drive turnover, particularly in rural Alaska, and ensuring that compensation structures are on par with other states. DeFeo and Hirshberg’s presentation followed a discussion of current educator turnover research from REL Northwest.

Faculty member Diane Hirshberg was interviewed by the High North News about challenges facing educators and students across the Circumpolar North as schools and universities are asked to move their teaching online.

Dr. Diane Hirshberg is co-author of a just-released report on how districts and schools use Title VI Indian Education Formula Grants. The study examines the implementation of the Title VI grants and addresses the services that Title VI funds support, how grantees work with stakeholders to identify program-eligible children, and how they measure progress toward their project objectives. This study, led by SRI International, was conducted for the U.S. Department of Education Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development Policy and Program Studies Service.