Ph.D., Urban Education Policy, University of Southern California (in progress)

Jimmy Aguilar (he/him/his) is a research assistant at the Pullias Center for Higher Education and a Gates Millennium Scholar in the Urban Education Policy Ph.D. program at USC Rossier School of Education. Aguilar is advised by Dr. Julie Posselt in the Higher Education concentration.

His research interests include college access and choice, organizational change, and program evaluation. More specifically, examining student development at selective research universities for historically underrepresented students from admissions through graduation; analyzing the structures and resources in place that support and/or hinder student success and retention.

Aguilar obtained his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Political Science and Chicanx Studies and completed a minor in Education. Following his undergraduate degree, Aguilar earned a master’s degree (Ed.M) in higher education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). While in Boston, he was an institutional researcher for Harvard College Office of Undergraduate Education, worked in graduate admissions diversity initiatives at the Harvard Business School, and interned with the ECMC Foundation working exclusively with their Basic Needs Initiative and overall College Student Success portfolio. Most recently, he worked at Georgetown University Office of Undergraduate Admissions, co-managing office and system-wide operations, working on recruitment and yield efforts of historically marginalized groups in postsecondary education, and regionally covering his home of Los Angeles and the rest of SoCal.