William B. Walker, Jr. (Will, he/him) is a doctoral student at the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia, where he studies institutional governance, student engagement, and organizational change in higher education. He joined the Institute as a recipient of the Presidential Graduate Fellowship, the University of Georgia’s highest honor for incoming doctoral students.
Will’s research agenda sits at the nexus of institutional governance, student success, and democratic student engagement. Drawing from sociology, political science, history, and critical theory, his work examines how power, organizational structures, and institutional logics shape students’ participation in university decision-making and their broader trajectories into and through higher education. Using qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, he actively thinks and writes about what higher education could be in the future via topics such as shared governance, organizational transformation, college access and success, and equity within STEM education environments.
His forthcoming dissertation is an exploratory critical case study of shared governance at a research-intensive university in the United States. Guided by scholarship on student voice and critical systems heuristics, the study investigates the underlying assumptions and institutional judgments that shape students’ access to university-level decision-making spaces and considers implications for more inclusive governance structures.
In addition to his governance-focused research, Will collaborates on projects examining the experiences of Black undergraduate women in STEM, role strain and adaptation in higher education environments, and the effectiveness of large-scale interventions designed to promote student success and educational mobility. His scholarship, with colleagues, has appeared in journals including the Review of Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, and Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences.
Beyond research, Will maintains a strong commitment to institutional leadership and professional service. He has served in numerous governance and advisory capacities at the University of Georgia, including appointments related to strategic planning, graduate student advocacy, mandatory student fees, and student health insurance policy. He previously served as President of the Graduate Student Association, where he led initiatives that expanded graduate student access to essential academic technologies and increased institutional support for graduate assistants.
Professionally, Will has been actively engaged with organizations such as the Association for the Study of Higher Education [ASHE] and the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education [CSSHE], where he has contributed as a conference reviewer, session chair, proposal reviewer, and committee member. His contributions to the field have been recognized through honors, including designation as an Outstanding Reviewer by ASHE.
Prior to beginning doctoral study, Will worked within the Indiana University Bloomington Office of Enrollment Management as a student grant writer supporting initiatives related to student engagement and retention. In that role, he contributed to the procurement and management of approximately $420,000 in external grant funding.
Will earned an M.S.Ed. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from Indiana University Bloomington and a B.A. in Leadership Studies from the University of Richmond. A native of Winnfield, he is also a proud alumnus of the LEDA Scholars Program.