Tia Monahan is a PhD student in economics and education at Teachers College and a research assistant at the Community College Research Center. Her research interests broadly lie in increasing equity and access in higher education, specifically in the two-to-four-year-college pipeline for low-income and underserved communities; the effects of college and university funding structures on student success; and faculty, staff, and departmental characteristics that affect both short- and long-term outcomes for low-income students.
Prior to joining the TC community as a PhD student and PEAR fellow, Monahan served on the board of the Master of Economics Student Association at Columbia as academic, research, and PhD chair, where she developed programming to improve the student experience, increase advising opportunities, and create program-specific career services. She has worked in several educator roles, including teaching courses in the University of Oregon’s Clark Honors Introductory Program and serving as its director, tutoring university student athletes in math and economics, working with high school students on SAT/ACT prep, and working as the upper school technology coordinator and yearbook digital art instructor at a Seattle-based independent K-12 school. Additionally, she performs contract work with ECONorthwest, an economic consulting firm in the Pacific Northwest with a strong education and social policy sector.
Monahan holds a bachelor of science in economics from the University of Oregon Clark Honors College and a master of arts in economics from Columbia University.
