Thurston “Thad” Domina, Ph.D., the UNC School of Education’s associate dean for academic affairs and the Robert Wendell Eaves Sr. Distinguished Professor in Educational Leadership, has been selected as a 2026 Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).
Nominated by peers, Domina joins a group of 34 exemplary scholars named 2026 AERA Fellows. Fellows were selected by the Fellows Committee and approved by the AERA Council, the association’s elected governing body. The AERA Fellows Program honors scholars for their exceptional contributions to and excellence in educational research.
The 2026 fellows will be inducted during a ceremony at the 2026 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles on April 9. With this cohort, the total number of AERA Fellows will reach 820.
“This is a well-earned honor for Thad and is a testament to the importance of his scholarly work and standing among his peers,” said Jill V. Hamm, Ph.D., dean of the UNC School of Education and William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Education. “Thad’s research asks challenging questions that often reveal similarly challenging answers. But his work is also distinguished by a commitment to revealing solutions that benefit all learners and educators.”
A sociologist by training, Domina has spent more than 20 years documenting educational inequalities and looking for educational policies and strategies that help to create a more just, equitable, and inclusive society. His research seeks to link disparate sources of data, including administrative data and documentary records as well as more traditional forms of survey and interview data, to understand the complex relationship between educational practice and social inequality.
His work seeks to understand how schools sort students into different learning environments, how this sorting process shapes students’ life chances, and how educational policies and educator practices can expand opportunities for all. His most recent book — “Schooled and Sorted: How Educational Categories Create Inequality” — co-authored with Andrew M. Penner, Ph.D., and Emily K. Penner, Ph.D., both on faculty at the University of California, Irvine, uses the theory of categorical inequality to make sense of these sorting processes and their consequences.
He also studies the interaction between families and schools in an attempt to understand processes through which out-of-school factors influence the distribution of educational opportunity.
Domina’s work has been supported by the National Institutes of Child Health and Development, the National Science Foundation, and the Spencer and W.T. Grant Foundations, among others.
Domina joins the following UNC School of Education faculty members and professors emeriti as an AERA Fellow:
- Dorothy L. Espelage (2008)
- Jill Fitzgerald (2013)
- Jeff Greene (2024)
- Linda Tillman (2025)
About AERA
The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the largest national interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning. Founded in 1916, AERA advances knowledge about education, encourages scholarly inquiry related to education, and promotes the use of research to improve education and serve the public good.