Dr. Susan Swayze

Dr. Susan Swayze, faculty affiliate of the Forum on Democracy & Education, is an associate professor of Educational Research at the George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development. She is an applied researcher and evaluator who transforms data into actionable information. In her 30-year professional career, Dr. Swayze has conducted studies at UCLA's Center for the Study of Evaluation, the Smithsonian Institutes, Johns Hopkins University, and Toronto Metropolitan University's Diversity Institute. She has authored over 50 peer-reviewed scholarly works in the areas of teaching and learning research and statistics, the experience of race in educational environments, psychological capital and psychological safety in learning and work environments, as well as STEM professional identity development.
Dr. Swayze utilizes her extensive practitioner knowledge to design learning experiences that facilitate successful student attainment of abstract concepts and complex topics in the following courses at GW: Introduction to Quantitative Research, Introduction to Educational Statistics, Group Comparisons & Designs (Inferential Stats), Qualitative Research Methods, Qualitative Data Analysis, Case Study Research Methods, and Mixed Methods. Dr. Swayze has taught graduate-level courses at GW since 1998 and joined the faculty full time in 2007. Prior to GW, she taught undergraduate and graduate courses at The Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland Global Campus, and the University of Mississippi.

Dr. Swayze earned graduate degrees in Education from UCLA - a Ph.D. in 1995 and an M.A. in 1991. In 1990, she graduated with honors from Washington & Lee University (in the second class of women) with a B.A. in Sociology & Anthropology. After completing her doctorate, Dr. Swayze earned an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.