Melissa Arnold Lyon is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University and a Senior Research Scientist at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Melissa studies how institutions and organized interests shape the political economy of education with a particular focus on inequality, federalism, and teacher politics and policy. She has published on topics including teachers' unions, teacher candidates for elected office, philanthropies, education governance, and local politics of education. Her current research focuses on teacher unionization and labor markets.
Melissa received her PhD in Politics & Education in 2020. Before pursuing her doctorate, she taught middle school in Houston, TX. Find more information about Melissa at melissa-lyon.com.
Melissa was a runner up for Have You Heard's Graduate Student Research Contest. You can listen to the podcast at: https://soundcloud.com/haveyouheardpodcast/contract-talk
Recently, she has also had two new working papers out:
https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai20-283 (with Prof. Doug Ready and Shani Bretas, EPOL Ph.D. candidate from TC);