About
Carrie B. Kisker, Ph.D.
Dr. Carrie B. Kisker is president of Kisker Education Consulting in Los Angeles, California. Drawing from her own and others' research, she regularly consults with college leaders on issues related to entrepreneurship and innovation, program and policy development, strategic planning and accountability, civic learning and democratic engagement. Click here to learn more.
In addition to her consulting work, Dr. Kisker runs the Center for the Study of Community Colleges, a nonprofit organization that engages in and supports research related to community college practice and policy. Working through the Center, and with funding from The Bill & Melinda Gates, Walter S. Johnson, Spencer, Hewlett, and Kettering foundations, Dr. Kisker has conducted several investigations of transfer and articulation reform, civic learning and democratic engagement, and deliberative practices in community colleges.
Dr. Kisker is author of The American Community College (Jossey-Bass, 7th ed., 2023), written with Arthur M. Cohen and Florence B. Brawer, Creating Entrepreneurial Community Colleges, A Design Thinking Approach (Harvard Education Press, 2021), and the forthcoming third edition of The Shaping of American Higher Education: Emergence and Growth of the Contemporary System (Jossey-Bass, 2024), with Arthur M. Cohen. She has also co-edited two volumes of New Directions for Community Colleges (Jossey-Bass, 2013 and 2016). Click here to learn more about Dr. Kisker's publications.
Dr. Kisker holds a B.A. in psychology and education from Dartmouth College, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in higher education from the University of California, Los Angeles. She sits on the board of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges, a scholarly association comprised of university-based researchers and community college practitioners dedicated to furthering community college scholarship.