Associate Professor of Higher Education and Social Work
PhD, Higher Education & Student Affairs, The Ohio State University

Royel M. Johnson is a nationally recognized authority on college student success and an associate professor of higher education and social work at the University of Southern California. He serves as co-director of the USC Pullias Center for Higher Education and is the incoming editor-in-chief of The Review of Higher Education.

His research, leadership and public scholarship examine how institutional policies, practices, cultures and political contexts shape access, belonging and postsecondary pathways. His work centers Black students and system-impacted students — those whose lives and educational pathways have been shaped by contact with the child welfare, criminal legal and housing and homelessness-response systems. He also examines how colleges and universities enact racial equity commitments amid political and legal pressure and develops theoretical and methodological tools for studying marginalization in higher education. His current California-based work examines Black student success, campus racial climate and postsecondary pathways for system-impacted learners.

Johnson is the author or editor of four published books and more than 60 scholarly articles and chapters. His book From Foster Care to College: Navigating Educational Challenges and Creating Possibilities (Teachers College Press) received NASPA’s 2026 Outstanding Publication Award. The Big Lie About Race in America’s Schools (Harvard Education Press), which he co-edited with Shaun R. Harper, received the 2026 Book Award from the Society of Professors of Education. He is also co-author of the forthcoming The College–Prison Nexus (Harvard Education Press). His research has been supported by more than $6.9 million in external funding from organizations including the Institute of Education Sciences, Spencer Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

In 2026, Johnson received the Trueba Award for Research Leading to the Transformation of the Social Contexts of Education from AERA Division G, which previously honored him with its Early Career Award in 2022. The Los Angeles Times named him a DEIA Visionary in 2023 and 2024.

As founding co-host and executive producer of the ASHE Presidential Podcast, Johnson has convened national conversations with leading scholars about equity, belonging, democratic resilience and the public purposes of higher education. He has delivered more than 100 invited keynotes and workshops, and his research and commentary have been featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, the Los Angeles Times and Education Week. He partners with colleges, universities, K–12 systems, government agencies and nonprofit organizations to connect research with policy and practice.

Johnson earned his PhD in higher education and student affairs, with a cognate in race and social policy, from The Ohio State University. He holds a BA in political science and an MEd in education policy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Expertise
System-impacted students | Sense of belonging | Racial equity in higher education

Extended bio and CV at USC Rossier