Kevin J. Dougherty is a professor emeritus of higher education and education policy at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a research affiliate at CCRC. He received his doctorate in sociology from Harvard University in 1983 and his undergraduate degree in political science from Washington University (St. Louis) in 1972. He has published widely on the origins and impacts of performance funding for higher education, the origins and impacts of community colleges, and public policies affecting access to and success in community colleges.
In October 2016, Dougherty and his colleagues published a book with Johns Hopkins University Press summarizing their research on the implementation and impacts of performance funding: Performance Funding for Higher Education. His book The Contradictory College: The Conflicting Origins, Impacts and Futures of the Community College (SUNY Press, 1994) was awarded the American Sociological Association’s Willard Waller Award for best book in the sociology of education for the years 1994 to 1996.