Jonathan E. Collins, Ph.D. is a writer, political scientist, and education policy scholar. Dr. Collins is an assistant professor of political science and education at Teachers College, Columbia University and an assistant professor of political science (by courtesy) at Columbia University. Collins also serves as the Associate Director of the Teachers College, Columbia University Center for Educational Equity. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia University, Collins was the Mary Tefft and John Hazen White Sr. Assistant Professor of Education, Political Science (by courtesy), and International and Public Affairs at Brown University.

His research focuses on democratic governance, racial justice, and the politics of education. Collins is one of the leading experts on the study of school board politics, and he is responsible for leading a variety of projects focused on improving the American education system through democratic innovation.

Collins is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards including the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, the Spencer Foundation Racial Equity Grant Award, the Urban and Local Politics Section of the American Political Science Association’s Susan Clarke Young Scholar Award, the Brown University Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation’s Democracy Fellowship. In 2021, Collins was selected as an “Emerging Education Policy Scholar” by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). In 2017, he was also selected as a “40 Under 40 Emerging Civic Leader” by the Los Angeles Empowerment Congress.

His academic research has been published in the American Political Science Review, Political Behavior, the Urban Affairs Review, Politics Groups & Identities, the Journal of Urban Affairs, Local Government Studies, and the Harvard Journal of African American Policy. Collins publishes a regular column for Phi Delta Kappan called Policy Solutions. His public commentary has been published in the Washington Post and Education Week. Collins also provides television commentary on Basic Black - WGBH and the Black News Channel. Collins is born-and-raised in Jackson, TN. He holds a BA in English from Morehouse College and both an MA in African American Studies and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA).