Since Fall 2001 Maresi Nerad is director of the new, national Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education (CIRGE) at the University of Washington, Seattle and Associate Research Professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Program College of Education, University of Washington where she teaches in the higher education program of the college. In 2000, she was appointed Dean-in-Residence at the National Association of Graduate Deans (CGS) on creating international collaboration between CGS and countries abroad.
From 1988 until 2001 Dr. Nerad was in charge of research at the Graduate Division at Berkeley, where she has undertaken various studies on graduate education for the Berkeley campus, the University of California, nine campuses, as well as national and international studies on doctoral education. These include examinations of factors affecting time to degree, doctoral attrition, career paths of doctorates, “PhDs –10 Years Later,” (61 US universities) in biochemistry, computer science, electrical engineering, English, mathematics, political science, and a national study on art history PhD recipients that examines the intersection of family and career. She is presently launching a Ford Foundation funded national survey to study the educational outcomes and career paths of social science PhD recipients who completed their doctoral degrees five years ago. She is also studying the process and progress of the NSF funded, interdisciplinary doctoral program (IGERT) in Urban Ecology at the University of Washington, including the international collaboration with an equivalent doctoral program at the Humboldt University in Germany. Dr. Nerad received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and her master’s degree in political science from the Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany.
Her research has been supported by the Ford Foundation (CIRGE), the University of Washington (Royalty Grant), the Getty Grants Program, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and NSF. She serves on national advisory committees (NSF, NRC, AAU), such as NRC Committee to Examine the Methodology for the 2005 Assessment of Research –Doctorate Programs, NSF advisory board on doctoral surveys, and on postdoctoral education and training. Dr. Nerad advises graduate schools on undertaking research to improve graduate and postdoctoral education. She has been an invited speaker at national and international conferences on graduate education.
Books:
- 1999, SUNY Press published the book, The Academic Kitchen: a Social History of Gender Stratification at the University of California. Edited book, Nerad, M. with R. June and D. Miller, eds. 1997. Graduate Education in the United States.
Articles:
- Nerad and Cerny. (2002) “Postdoctoral Appointments and Employment Patterns of Science and Engineering Doctoral Recipients Ten-Plus Years after PhD Completion, ” in Communicator, Vol. XXXV, no7, August-Sept;
- Nerad and Cerny (1999), “From Rumors to Facts: Career Outcomes of English Ph.D.'s. Results from the Ph.D.’s—Ten Years Later Study,” in ADE Bulletin, no 124, pp.43-55, winter 2000. Association of Departments of English: Modern Language Association, New York;
- Nerad and Cerny (1999) ”Postdoctoral Patterns, Career Advancement, and Problems,” in American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, vol. 285, pp. 1533-1535. Washington, D.C.: 3 September;
- Nerad and Cerny, (1998) Widening the Circle: Another Look at Graduate Women Students,” in Über Grenzen. Neue Wege in Wissenschaft und Politik , Karin Hartmann, Beate Krais, eds. Frankfurt, Germany: Campus. Expanded version in special issue of the Council of Graduate Schools Communicator, vol. XXXII, no.6. Washington, D.C.: August 1999;
- Nerad and D. Miller (1997) “The Institution Cares: Berkeley's Efforts to Support Doctoral Students in the Humanities and Social Sciences with their Dissertations,” in: Dissertation Players and Process: Factors Affecting Completion. New Direction for Higher Education, no. 99. L. Goodchild, K. Green, E. Katz, R. Kluever, eds. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
She serves and served on many national advisory committees (NSF, NRC, AAU), such as presently on the NRC Committee to Examine the Methodology for the 2005 Assessment of Research–Doctorate Programs, the American Association of Universities, Scholarly Committee on Assessing Quality of University Education and Research Project (2001-2003).