Theo Pippins, PhD

Senior Research Associate

Dr. Pippins is a Senior Research Associate at ACUE, where he primarily conducts evaluations of ACUE’s institutional partnerships. His career in education began as a New York City Teaching Fellow, for which he taught high school Algebra in Brooklyn, NY. During this time, Pippins also served as an Ambassador and a Teacher Mentor for NYC Men Teach, providing guidance and support to first-year teachers of color.

Prior to joining ACUE, Pippins was a Research and Analytics Consultant for the Research and Policy Support Group at the New York City Department of Education, where he evaluated Equity and Excellence for All initiatives, including AP for All, Computer Science for All, and College Access for All. He has also served as an instructor of Economics and Education and as a research assistant at Teachers College, Columbia University. As a research assistant, Pippins has contributed to projects related to measuring low-income families’ responsiveness to variations in the presentation of schooling information, and on the predictiveness of humanities coursework on the intensive and extensive margins of transfer for community college students.

Pippins’ personal research interests include quantitative and causal research on the efficacy of educational policies and interventions to improve students’ college access and success. He is particularly interested in understanding and mitigating racial and socioeconomic inequities in educational attainment. His work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the American Educational Research Association, the American Economic Association, and Williams College’s Allison Davis Research Fellowship. Pippins received his BA in Economics from Williams College.

He holds a MS in Education from St. John’s University Graduate School of Education, and a PhD in Economics and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.