Stephen Porter is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Leadership, Policy and Adult & Higher Education at North Carolina State University, where he teaches graduate courses in statistics, causal inference, and workflow of data analysis. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester, with a concentration in econometrics. Prior to his faculty career, he spent a decade in postsecondary administration, most recently as Director of Institutional Research at Wesleyan University.
His research focuses on student success, with an emphasis on evaluation using methods for causal inference, and survey methodology. He has published in journals such as AERA Open, Economics of Education Review, Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, and Public Opinion Quarterly. The U.S. Department of Education, the Institute of Education Sciences, the Lumina Foundation, and the National Science Foundation have funded his research.
Currently he serves as an editorial board member for the Journal of Higher Education, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, and Research in Higher Education, and has served on the boards of the American Educational Research Journal, Journal of College Student Development, and Review of Higher Education. He has chaired several review panels for the Institute of Education Sciences, and has served as a Visiting Scholar for both the Center of Excellence for Complex Data Analysis and the Education and Workforce Development division at RTI International. He has also served as a consultant for the 2016 and 2020 NCES National Postsecondary Student Aid Studies.
I’m highly involved in local politics via the Wake County Republican party, where I’ve served as an election greeter, election observer, vice-precinct chair, and delegate to the county, District 2 and state conventions. I also serve as a Board Member for the Wake County Selective Service System Local Board.