Russ Skiba

Russell Skiba, Ph.D. is a Professor in the School Psychology program at Indiana University and Director of the Equity Project at Indiana University, a consortium of federal, state, and foundation-funded grants providing evidence to practitioners and policymakers in the areas of school violence, zero tolerance, and equity in education. His teaching focuses on overcoming educational inequity in schools, and in practical application of evidence-based social and behavioral interventions. His research focuses on the overuse of exclusionary discipline, and in particular factors that contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in exclusionary school discipline. He was most recently the lead facilitator and organizer for the Discipline Disparities Research to Practice Collaborative, a group of 26 national educators, researchers, advocates, and policymakers who sought to advance knowledge and practice with respect to the effects of and interventions for disparities in exclusionary discipline. He was a member of the writing team that produced the U.S. Department of Education's document on school safety Early Warning, Timely Response, and a member and lead author of the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Zero Tolerance. Skiba has testified before the United States Civil Rights Commission, spoken before both Houses of Congress on issues of school discipline and school violence, and in 2008, acted as a special consultant to OSEP on issues of disproportionality and equity in special education. He was awarded the Push for Excellence Award by the Rainbow Coalition/Operation PUSH for his work on African American disproportionality in school suspension. He has testified twice before the National Academy of Sciences, and has been listed by Education Week as among the top 200 scholars in the nation influencing educational policy and practice.