Kelly Rosinger, associate professor of education and public policy at Penn State, has received the 2026 Excellence in Public Policy Higher Education Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), in recognition of her contributions to research that informs higher education policy and practice.
"Kelly Rosinger is an outstanding scholar of higher education, and our college is honored to count her among our faculty," said Gwendolyn Lloyd, dean of the Penn State College of Education. "Her research is rigorous and impactful. It is informing policy decisions that shape opportunity for students across the country. Through InformEd States and her dedicated mentorship of graduate students and early-career researchers, Kelly has built a model for how scholarship can serve the public good. This national recognition is richly deserved."
Presented by ASHE's Council on Public Policy in Higher Education (CPPHE), the award recognizes scholars whose work bridges academic research and policy practice. Rosinger, who is also an SSRI affiliate, was recognized during the CPPHE Pre-Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
For Rosinger, the honor carries particular significance because it acknowledges an aspect of academic scholarship that is not always reflected in traditional measures of research productivity.
"Many of us as faculty hope, in an ideal situation, that our work makes a difference and is used for policy and practice," Rosinger said. "So often, I think we don't always know when that is happening."
She noted that translating research into resources policymakers can use requires a different approach than publishing in academic journals. Much of her work involves developing policy briefs, consulting with state agencies and identifying the questions policymakers need answered.
"The work that it takes to get information to policymakers is different than publishing in an academic journal," she said.
Translating research into policy
Rosinger's research examines how state higher education funding and college admissions policies shape educational opportunities, particularly for students and institutions that have historically been underserved.
A major focus of her work is performance-based funding, which ties some portion of state appropriations for public colleges and universities to measures of student outcomes.
Through InformEd States, a research collaborative she co-founded in 2019, Rosinger and her colleagues have assembled extensive data on performance-based funding policies used in more than 40 states. Their research documents substantial differences in how states design these policies, including the proportion of funding tied to performance measures and whether funding formulas account for differences in institutional resources and student populations.
Rosinger said she initially expected the project to produce a single paper, but it has grown into a sustained, productive collaboration, crediting Penn State and the College of Education for supporting the approach needed to conduct this type of large-scale work that has public impact. The datasets have been downloaded hundreds of times, and Rosinger said her team has found its research, graphs and data cited in state policy documents. These resources allow policymakers to compare approaches across states and consider how different funding models may affect institutions and students.
Rosinger said discovering her team's work in state policy documents is especially rewarding because it demonstrates that the research is reaching its intended audience.
Another example of her policy engagement is an ongoing collaboration with the Washington Student Achievement Council, which administers financial aid programs in Washington state.
The state has introduced a policy connecting eligibility for free public college tuition to participation in certain public assistance programs. The initiative allows eligible students to learn as early as 10th grade that public college tuition may be free, giving them more time to plan their educational futures.
Rosinger and her collaborators have worked with the state agency to develop outreach strategies for students, families and school counselors, helping communicate eligibility requirements and the steps students can take to pursue postsecondary education.
The project reflects a broader goal of her research, she said: identifying how policies can reduce barriers to college access and help students navigate complex admissions and financial aid processes.
Building a collaborative research community
Rosinger's commitment to public higher education is rooted partly in her undergraduate experience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she began considering how public universities could better fulfill their responsibilities to the communities that support them.
That perspective continues to inform her research on how institutions can serve students and the broader public, she explained.
"What is Penn State doing, then, for the people of the commonwealth and beyond?" Rosinger asked, noting that the question continues to motivate her work.
Collaboration and mentorship are also central to her research approach, she said. Her research teams have secured more than $6 million in external funding, much of which has supported graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.
Rosinger said she has co-authored more than 20 papers with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, providing opportunities for emerging researchers to contribute to academic publications, policy briefs and publicly available datasets.
"We couldn't do the work without graduate students," she said. "They're absolutely critical for helping us develop the resources that we have, helping us think about the issues that we think about."
Looking ahead
As higher education institutions nationwide navigate demographic changes, evolving funding models and financial constraints, Rosinger said she believes evidence-based policymaking will become increasingly important.
"As states face these difficult decisions in the coming years, our work can help policymakers be more thoughtful about where to spend money, and how to spend that money to achieve more equitable outcomes for students and for colleges," she said.
Ultimately, Rosinger said she sees that mission as fundamental to the purpose of public higher education.
"We should invest in our colleges as engines of opportunity," she said.